The Comeback Kid

Recent polls suggest a tightening of the race in Germany. If nothing else, one must certainly give Gerhard Schroeder an"A" forEffort, and and "A+" for Chutzpah.

How else could you possibly characterize the events of the last several months. The gutsiness of deliberately losing a confidence vote, only to immediately and drastically trail the CDU alliance for weeks, and now seemingly making a surge at the end of the campaign is quite remarkable. Herr Schroeder has a bit of Clinton in him. His has media savvy, and always seems to know what to say to his base... a true politician. Will Germans follow Schroeder one more time?

A recent interview with the left-leaning Süddeutsche Zeitung (reported on Spiegel Online) is an excellent glimpse into the perspective of Gerhard Schroeder:

Süddeutsche Zeitung Despite everything that you have done in the last few years, nothing concrete has actually changed: unemployment figures have risen and there is practically no economic growth.

Schröder That is not true. International observers recognize that without our reforms Germany would be in a much worse position. Our problem is that many of us here in Germany are much more negative in their assessment than commentators from abroad. Major economic publications, such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times, recognize that we have made a lot of progress with our program of structural reforms. It is only at home that we talk as if Germany was still the sick man of Europe. This picture just doesn't fit the reality any more.

The Bundeskanzler does not seem to realize that his excuse, which seems to be that Germans see their economy as worse than it might actually be, IS PRECISELY THE PROBLEM. The economy in Germany is certainly not fantastic, but the larger problem is that the outlook in Germany for the citizens is so bleak that their domestic markets are horrible. There simply is not enough consumer confidence for the market to be healthy.

Süddeutsche Zeitung You always quote just the first part of The Economist article. In the second half the writer says that it is now time for the opposition Christian Democrats to take over government.

Schröder That is an assessment which has been formed without proper knowledge of German society. I am obviously going to have a different opinion.

Okay here in successive comments, he says that commentors abroad know more about Germany's economic health than Germany, as a whole, does. The Economist's thesis however according to Schroeder, cannot be supported because a lack of proper knowledge of German society. Wow, this guy is GOOD!!!

Süddeutsche Zeitung But why should people vote for you again when, after seven years in power, you still haven't achieved your most important goal -- the aim, which you announced in 1998, of reducing unemployment significantly?

Schröder That can be explained by the fact that no government has so far been faced with the amount of problems which we have had to deal with: the bursting of the internet bubble five years ago, the effects of September 11, oil prices which have risen from 15 dollars to 70 dollars a barrel. These are massive external shocks which explain why we have not been able to achieve our aim. But we are on the right course. The first signs of success are also being seen on the job market: 1500 new jobs have been created since April.

Um... Come again? No government has had to deal with the amount of problems that his government has in the last seven years? Is he the Chancelor of the US? The economy here seems to have held its own during the last seven years. The massive shocks that he speaks of, should have signalled a more energetic drive towards reforms. The US economy is not particularly worse off since these shocking events. Where I do sympathize with the Chancelor is the issue of reforms. The problem goes hand in hand with the fact that Germans are currently very pessimistic. They simply would not support his difficult, but necessary reforms. However, to boast about 1,500 new jobs since April is astonishly weak, when under the same circumstances, the US economy has been adding jobs at a rate of roughly 10 times that amount each month of late.

In about a week's time the German electorate's courage will be put to the test. The question is really quite simple... Status quo, or change -even just for the sake of change!

Universal Anger of the Left

I have noticed that the "Left" doesn't like Angela Merkel too much. The way that they treat those with which they have political disagreements is not particular to Germany, or even the U.S., but I notice a definite angry protest movement of the "Left." You can go back to Bush's first visit to Germany when 10,000 police officers were brought to Berlin to deal with massive protests. It was noted that the amount of security for this event was similar to the previous May Day celebrations as well as an Anti-Semitism Conference. The obvious question for me was "where does all of this anger come from?" At the time, I remember thinking that the German Left held Bush, Capitalisim, and Anti-Semitism in equal amounts of contempt.

During our last election cycle, the news was plastered with accounts of massive and angry protests at the Republican National Convention in New York. In contrast, there were no major protests at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Again, I remember thinking "why don't serious members of the Democratic Party essentially tell these folks to "get off my side"?" In my opinion, the anger and vitriol that these protestors exhibit has the effect of giving their causes infinitesimal credibility.

A recent Expatica article, titled "Far-Left Tries to Shout Down Merkel at Rally" pointed out just the latest version of the same phenomenon.

But Merkel's speech was constantly interrupted by about 50 young men, dressed in black with dark sunglasses who yelled insults, blew whistles and swirled loud rattles.

"Nazis out", "Hypocrite!" and "Go home you slut!" were all part of the repertoire heard by the entire crowd for well over an hour.

Some of the men waved flags of the former East German Communist party, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which has merged with a western protest group to form the new Left Party which polls show could win up to 10 per cent in Germany's September 18 elections.

Why has the rhetoric of the angry Left become so... well..., ANGRY? Is there a culture in the "West" of attempting to change the system from outside of the system? Most causes in politics are at their very base legitimate, but anarchy is not a legitmate remedy for much of anything.

A Culture of Blame

The horrific events of the past week in the Southern coastal areas have unfortunatley brought out the "Blame Bush" crowd. This culture of blame resides primarily on the left.

German Minister of Environment Jurgen Tritten's comments earlier this week certainly go to the core of this issue. His blaming of the Bush Administration for... not the government's handling of the crisis, but for the hurricane itself is very telling. Of course German politicians have a recent penchant for beating the Anti-American drum as part of electioneering, but his remarks still beg the question...why? What could he possibly hope to gain by publishing his editorial even as the events in New Orleans were unfolding? The fact that this tactic has somewhat proven results may say something about the current state of mind in Germany.

Look, so many contrasting things about global warming have been written that there is clearly an honest debate to be had about it's effects. But that's not the point. The point is that the first instinct of Herr Tritten was to self-righteously lash out and lecture. To blame GW Bush for these events is pure hyperbole. Everybody knows that the US congress voted something like 97-0 against ratifying Kyoto during the Clinton administration. But that does not stop the chorus of the negative from casting full blame on the current president. Who on the right blames Clinton for that?

America has shown a history of forgiveness that I'm not sure is fully understood in Germany. Forgiveness is part of our culture in a way that just does not exist in today's Germany. The Germans who hold on to a negative view of the US are, in my opinion, hypocritical. Germans have for the last 60 years asked (properly, I believe) not to be judged soley upon the Nazi era. But at the same time, they refuse to judge the United States on the totality of our actions and our history. Like all nations, America has certainly made it's share of mistakes. But who, with a mindful eye towards world history of the last one hundered years, would say that America has not been a force for good in the world? The answer is the "but" crowd of the left. The typical refrain is always "but, look at this negative thing, or that negative thing" about the US. Again that's a perfect example of looking at the world through a microscope, and not seeing the entire landscape.