The Death of German Conservatism

[Kellanved]

Amid the post-election noise in Germany, one salient fact has been getting little play. German voters don't trust political parties to the right of the center. It's been a long time coming, but its time to write the obituary of German conservatism.

Everybody knows it's coming. Somebody is going to have to take the fall for the Christian Democrats (CDU) miserable showing in last Sunday's general elections -- and all signs point to party head and chancellor candidate Angela Merkel. Indeed, the knives to be used in the slaughter of this scapegoat are already being sharpened. According to Thursday's Süddeutsche Zeitung, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, Governor Edmund Stoiber has already begun blaming Merkel internally for "her cold and heartless rhetoric" used in the campaign.

But publicly, everybody on the right side of Germany's political spectrum is acting as though the 35.2 percent result for the combined CDU and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) -- while perhaps a bit disappointing -- is really no big deal. On Tuesday, in fact, in the first meeting of the newly-elected CDU parliamentary group, Merkel was confirmed as the party's front woman with 98.64 percent of the votes cast.

But the ritual sacrifice is almost sure to come. After all, it's much easier to blame Merkel for the party's election debacle than it is to face the truth exposed on Sunday: The right side of the German political spectrum is in an unfocused freefall. And conservative Germany is a shambles.
...
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,376015,00.html

[stepnw1f]

1. Awesome!!!! (nt)

[Roachman]

2. Yeah!

:nuke:

Now if we could only get them out here!

[Kolesar]

3. that sounds like where the Dems are--in Ohio and even nationwide

The Dems just cannot seem to establish themselves as Martians--acolytes of the God of War. This country values militarism. Note how we handled Spain, Mexico, and the Native population.

[sasha031]

4. i was beginning ot be afraid for Germany

that they may have dusted their swastika. so glad the right is dead, wish it would happen here

[Kellanved]

5. the "lite" right is dead

The old German lower-middle-class conservatism; the no cuts, no changes, nobody gets fired conservatism.

They might resurrect as neo-cons. (Not that Merkel was/is very far from that).

[Karenina]

6. The picture on this week's Die Zeit

had me laughing SO HARD I had to buy it! It will take me some considerable time to read the articles contained darin aber trotzdem...
WHAT A HOOT!

[bobbieinok]

7. is the picture online?????