« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Contra Yeats; The Greek Center Held

The Silent Majority Again Held Wisdom

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  June 17th, 2012 at 09:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Official results released by the interior ministry, with 97 percent of ballots counted, showed New Democracy taking 29.7 percent of the vote, with SYRIZA on 26.9. The PASOK Socialists were set to take 12.3 percent of the vote. Because of a 50-seat bonus given to the party which comes first, that would give New Democracy and PASOK 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament, in an alliance broadly committed to the 130 billion euros ($164 billion) bailout.

(HT: Rueters)

I congratulate Antonis Samaris for cobbling together a narrow victory in today’s Greek Election. He represented common sense and ratiocination in what appeared to be a world gone mad. As a Romneyesque Moderate Rightist, Samaris wanted to embark on the painful path of digging Greece out of the economic ditch and maintaining its ties to the Eurozone. He seems to be a cautious, risk-averse leader who will try to rebuild Greece’s image as a reliable and viable member of the modern world. He describes his interpretation of his narrow mandate to govern below.

“The Greek people voted today to stay on the European course and remain in the euro zone,” New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, 61, told jubilant supporters. “There will be no more adventures, Greece’s place in Europe will not be put in doubt.”

Samaris sent the perfect message. The adults are back in charge. If Samaris can assuage doubts that the rest of the world has about Greece being a trustworthy entity, he can do a lot to help the worldwide financial markets stop panicking. Compared to his opposition on the Far Right and The Neo-Marxian Left, Samaris is Pericles-reborn.

The principle opposition will be led by Alex Tsipras and The Marxian Syriza Party. Tsipras has been dubbed “The Scariest Man in Europe.” He is an avowed Communist who says that if Greece refuses to implement austerity than Europe will lack the testicular fortitude to refuse them all the bailout cash they need. He has refered to Greece’s debts as odious and thereby uncollectable.

Samaris is further strengthened by the fact that he has opposition to his right that has similar levels of mental retardation to Alex Tsipras. The Far Right Golden Dawn Party seems to have as many issues as it champions. However, Nikolaos Michaloliakos has become perhaps the most successful Nazi in politics since Francisco Franco did the world one final favor by assuming room temperature. His party took 6% of the vote and will enter The Greek Parliament.

He will thereby enjoy the opportunity to get in fistfights with women on more Greek political shows. Perhaps his party’s new slogan can be “I done told you to get me a beer and a sammitch.” With opponents like Tsipras and Michaloliakos to contend with, Samaris needs only to show up with a nice tie and proper manners to gain in stature from regular comparison.

In conclusion, the civilized world dodged a bullet with the moderately right-wing New Democracy Party pulling out a narrow win against the terminally insane Alex Tsipras. They will cobble together an unspectacular, bureaucratic and corrupt ruling majority. They will work with Germany and France to reach a deal that keeps Greece attached to Europe and the world’s financial markets out of the toilet. Contra the Great John Yeats, it appears that the center has held in Athens, Greece.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • commonsenseobserver

    The eurozone in its current form is unsustainable, and I think the same applies to fiscal union, even if the bailouts provide a temporary band-aid. But I’d rather have a centrist in power than Syriza or Golden Dawn. I heard that PASOK is making trouble, though.

  • jaykali

    We are just stretching out the pain. Unfortunately if they did go full blown left and DID go down in flames, the Germans would still be to blame in the end and their darned austerity. I will say the Germans ARE wanting tax hikes which is ALSO a lefty type of idea – “out of cash? just raise taxes!!”. So any way you look at it, the left is to blame =)

    • commonsenseobserver

      To Hollande-style 50%> rates.

    • thx1138v2

      Yes, you have it. The “center” or “moderate” position in Europe is between communism and socialism. What the Greek election tells us is that they will continue their socialism and that will only kick the can down the road for a little while.

      The left in America has gone so far left that Hugo Chavez of Venezuela considers Fidel Castro to be to the _right_ of Obama so we have somewhat the same situation here. In this scenario the traditional American liberal is a right winger, the conservative is a “radical” right winger, and the libertrian is a “fringe” right winger.

      So any candidate running in this cycle that poses as a “centrist” or “moderate” and spouts the typical “compromise” line is actually willing to compromise with the devil to get socialism instead of communism. That is exactly what has put us in the position that we are in currently and that is how the “center” has been moved so far left. Doing the same thing again and expecting a different outcome is insanity so I must assume that “moving to the center” is exactly their plan and they have no plan at all for moving the “center” to right. They are essentially proposing more of the same and saying that we are on the correct path.

      I’ll be voting against them.

  • aesthete

    and there haven’t been since Alexander took control of the Greek city-states.

    Samaras in particular is stumping for a bailout and looking to maintain a monetary union that does not work and which will not work. To that end, his party is looking to form a coalition government PASOK, which will involve including SYRIZA in government as well.

    No bullets were dodged, because there were no good options in the Greek election. There were no good options in the Greek election for the same reasons that there are never any good options in the Greek election: Greece is a fundamentally unstable country prone to odious political movements, and has a weak private economy eclipsed by the public sector and the black market. It has always been a profligate state, and has never desired fiscal sanity. Samaras is nothing more than a nice man in a suit who will make sure that Germany and others keep propping up the failed experiment that is modern Greek democracy.

    BTW, this wouldn’t be the first monetary union that Greece has wrecked…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Monetary_Union

    • JSobieski

      The reason why bankruptcy law and courts exist for the private sector is that it is possible to get so deep in the red that there are no viable alternatives short of a lifetime of penance and indentured servitude.

      On a national scale, collective penance/servitude of that nature is neither possible nor desirable.

      The Greeks are still hoping that they can somehow make everything ok, and so they voted for someone who maybe could have been helpful . .. if done 5 years ago.

      Greece should just default. Instead, they started cascading bailouts and bank runs.

      • lineholder

        I don’t think Greece will even remotely considering defaulting now. The new “leaders” in France will try to put the squeeze on Germany and other austerity-minded states in the EU to be the financial backers of their “collective success via increased spending” plan.

        France has chosen the way of Greece…and the hits just keep on coming, eh?

        Have you seen the platform for these guys in France, JSobieski?

        “Now with control over the 577-seat Assembly, Hollande?s cabinet is secure and enactment seems certain for his left-of-center agenda: a 75 percent marginal tax rate on annual incomes of one million euros or more, new 45 percent tax rate for those earning more than 150,000 euros ($195,000) a year, hiring 60,000 new school teachers, and taking the retirement age in France from 62 back to 60″

        http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/17/socialist-sweep-of-french-assembly-marred-by-segolene-royal-defeat/

  • ghostship

    The last time the U.S. actually spent less than the previous year was 1965. (118.2b in 65 vs 118.5b in 64) That’s way before I was even born!

    Then again since this article describes Mr Samaris as a, “cautious, risk-averse leader” then equates his win as being, “The adults are back in charge.” maybe that pretty much describes what is wrong with mainstream conservatives. Mainstream conservatives are too conservative as in they are too afraid of taking risks.

    The left has plenty of radicals and extremists. Heck, they’re practically overflowing with them and while that often blows up in their faces enough of them succeed in pushing the left’s agenda.

    However, conservatives always seem to want to take the safe choice. It’s never seems to be the time to draw the line in the sand. There never seems to be a hill conservatives are willing to die on.

    You can’t win a fight if all you do is block. You may have an awesome defensive lineup but you won’t win if you don’t score some points. Conservatives can’t afford to wait until conditions are perfect before making some moves. Conservatives need to be willing to throw caution to the wind and start making some big moves or we’re going to lose more than just an election. We just might lose this country as we know it because the sad fact is we’re not in any better shape than Greece. Our economy is a house of cards waiting to collapse and playing 52 pickup won’t be fun.

    In short Conservatives need to stop acting so Conservative and then maybe we could get an austerity plan also.

    • checkmate2012

      I must say I’m still not convinced that the Eurozone should remain in tact, but don’t think this is the time for countries to exit it when chaos is happening.

      • commonsenseobserver

        In anycase, it’s good to have structural reforms even in the face of a short-term recession, but even better to have structural reforms without shcoking the economy, which is what Republicans are trying to achieve. Romney has said he is not cutting $1 trillion in a year, but even cutting a net of 1% from current spending levels would be a good step towards real spending cuts.

        • checkmate2012

          comments: “Conservatives can?t afford to wait until conditions are perfect before making some moves. Conservatives need to be willing to throw caution to the wind and start making some big moves or we?re going to lose more than just an election.” that we need bold action and leadership here at home.

          I was going to say duh since different continents are involved but decided to explain my comment instead…thought you knew I wasn’t an airhead by now :)

          • commonsenseobserver

            :P

        • ghostship

          Are not a good step towards real spending cuts.

          The fact is that cutting spending is going to hurt. There’s no way to avoid it.

          This is a time when Conservatives need to make a big move and insist on real spending cuts right now even though it will be very unpopular and painful. However, the nation will be much better off in the long run if it gets its finances under control.

          Many Conservatives want to avoid it with plans to avoid the tough cuts by stretching it out over 20 to 30 years and hoping the economy grows enough to where the tough cuts won’t have to be made. That however is nothing but self-delusion. Nothing will come of such plans.

          If that’s all that Conservatives can do then trillion dollar deficits are here to stay. At least until the whole house of cards collapses.

          Conservatives need to be bold and start making some big moves because playing it safe just isn’t a good option anymore.

          • commonsenseobserver

            The FY 2013 budget will almost certainly have one, and it will stay for another year.

            But even with Obama’s big spending budget, they will dip eventually. The problem is that our budget system, our entitlement programs, are unsustainable in the long term. We have to set the wheels in motion for entitlement reform, but we certainly will not be cutting benefits now. And we will be cutting spending, but we won’t be cutting it by say, $1 trillion a year to immediately balance the budget. What we need are reforms that will place us on the path to balance in less than a decade, stabilise the debt, and ensure long-term fiscal discipline and sustainability.

            We need swift and steady savings and reforms, and I think the Ryan Budget, the Lee Budget, and the RSC Budget, along with Bowles-Simpson, all offer their own unique benefits (and flaws).

          • commonsenseobserver

            Yes, we’ll be better off in the long run, and yes, it’ll hurt at first, but what Republicans need to do is to find a way to reap the benefits of the first while relieving the second. The point of finding savings and implementing reforms early is so that we can avoid greater pain, not to bring forward more pain.

          • ghostship

            The problem with any long term plan to cut spending is that while it may work on paper it will never work in real life.

            A strong charismatic leader may be able to get spending cuts passed once or maybe even twice in a row but politicians are not known for their endurance. They would never be able to keep their fortitude for a decade long plan. They would cave long before the plan would be able to come to fruition. That’s assuming they even manage to maintain political control during the time the plan was to be implemented.

            Long term plans to cut spending over time are attractive to many Conservatives but they’re simple not workable in real life.

            If Conservatives are ever to get serious about cutting spending then the cuts will have to be made big and done quickly or any serious reduction in spending will simply never occur.

  • Tbone

    as is the EU. The sooner it happens and they kill each other a while, the better off we will be.

  • http://libertynews.com/ mbecker908

    Just wait for blood in the streets when the “austerity” measures hit.

    • checkmate2012

      are worth their weight in straw? I say dissolve the EZ as it was a failed idea from the get go.

      • http://libertynews.com/ mbecker908

        I do think some aspects of the EU will stand, like open borders. The rest of it, especially the Euro will be history because the countries in the zone do not share common values.

        • checkmate2012

          on anything? We can’t agree in a two party system!

          I had a question for you. Didn’t you send me the pic of pirate Romney, which I saved by the way?

          • http://libertynews.com/ mbecker908

            That sounds like a real winner.

          • checkmate2012

            I was hoping it was you as I wrote a long post today on the king of USA and was looking for Obama in a Czar hat and thought you were the man to do it!

            Another Step Closer to the Destruction of America Thanks to the Order-by-Fiat-in-Chief

          • http://libertynews.com/ mbecker908

            who are really good at Photoshopping. Have you asked Mr. Google? He’s got an amazing collection of images.

          • checkmate2012

            n/t

  • edintexas

    Thanking the Greek citizens for their adult voting decisions is probably just a little excessive. Those who wished the vote to go this way may owe quite a bit to the Greek Football (Soccer) team, which beat Russia the day before the election, securing the European Football Championship title for Greece. So the young voters stayed out most of the night celebrating, surely a drag on get out the vote efforts.

  • Pingback: Handy orten