Saving Capitalism Latin America is increasingly experiencing a wave of victories that are without a doubt left to centre in the political specter. This phenomenon has certain traits that one has to observe in order to understand what are the causes behind this tendency; in order to do this one has to look at recent history and even consider aspects that date to the last century. There are five particular aspects that can explain why socialism in its different varieties has achieved the predominance it currently withholds in the region: 1. The focus on winning battles rather than at winning the overall ‘war’ at once. 2. Leftists are progressives rather than radicals; they’re at terms with the progressive increase of the State and not focused on an immediate radical shift. 3. They see each and every country as a battlefield, each electoral victory is important for the movement. 4. They understand that the road to socialism is achieved with baby steps. 5. They never let a good crisis go to waste. With that in consideration it’s time to understand how capitalism can be saved according to the previously mentioned criteria. Why is it important to focus on winning battles rather than focusing on immediately winning the war? The political agenda of the liberty movement is to limit Government. And it is quite possible that this has to be done in a progressive manner pending on the popular reception of the reforms. Liberty can’t only be about enforcing a ‘violent shift’ into our ideal model; any reform that limits the State is positive while any reform that increases the State is negative. Considering that the status quo is predominantly statist there is a broad path to travel. There is a path attributed to Nikita Khrushchev: ‘‘We cant expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find thaot they have Communism The importance of this quote lies in the fact unless societies are faced with a crisis (social, economic and/or political); societies have a tendency to reject a radical shift hence, as the quote suggests, only by winning battle by battle will society embrace the overall winning of the war as a non intimidating shift; as you can see the left understood that quite well. One can see how the second aspect of being perceived as progressives rather than as radicals is why the left in times of peace and prosperity is still able of gaining in the political ground. The reason I’m employing the term leftist is because the left has a series of facades throughout modern history that can be enclosed within such a term. Leon Trotsky which is probably one of the most radical facades of the left once stated: ‘‘It is the task of the regenerated Soviets to collaborate with the world revolution and the building of a socialist society.’’ And this brings the topic of being international and the importance it has had for the left. In Latin America the infamous ‘Foro de Sao Paulo’ has a recipe on how to shift a country to the ‘left’ and curiously enough they have united both Trotskyites and the sponsors of the ‘Socialism of the XXI Century’ in this front. They understood that only a regional brotherhood of statists political agents would effectively advance the cause whether with a hardcore socialist emphasis or with a more moderate approach depending on the reality of the country in question. With the sole exception of the academy; the political liberty movements have failed to do this successively at least in Latin America. It is fairly safe to assume that the left is aware of walking towards socialism with baby steps at times of peace and prosperity; however this is not the case during times of crisis. As Rahm Emmanuel (former member of the Obama administrarion) once said ‘‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’’. The Great Depression and the recent financial crisis were severely employed as an instrument by the left, one has to recall the words attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt: ‘‘but while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.’’ This is the basic trait of populists; during times of crisis society has no time to spare for rational attitudes, such as those enclosed with economic rationality, they are now open to radical shifts (not surprisingly this attitude managed to allow FDR to employ his infamous New Deal). Recent times, due to the 2008 financial crisis, made the left proclaim that capitalism was finally proved wrong and hence the agenda for the left was somewhat more radical and they started to collect electoral victories. They never let a good crisis go to waste. In conclusion, how can capitalism be saved? By understanding the ways of the left. Focus on winning the political battles even if it is one by one, portray the liberty ideals as the final goal if the situation of your country may conceive them as too radical a shift (progressively limit the state), be international in the liberty political arena, if the left is in power and there are no signs of crisis then don’t worry if the road to capitalism is traveled with baby steps and finally ‘‘never let a good crisis go to waste’’. David Rodríguez, President at Revolución Liberal Vicepresident at Amagi Jóvenes Difusores de la Libertad
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:12:55 +0000