Endless compromise is not a strategy

Democratic (in)action, Pointlesss centrism, US politics
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Matt Y. is right:

The basic dynamic here should be familiar. When Democrats decided about ten years ago to stop pushing for gun control legislation, that didn’t take the issue off the table it led to a wave of envelop-pushing pro-gun bills. When the GOP temporarily stopped opposing Social Security in the wake of World War II, it led to 30 years of steady increases in Social Security benefits and eligibility. Every conservative retreat from anti-gay bigotry inspires people to push deeper for equality. As long as a large minority of the public thinks people should be thrown in jail for having an abortion, we’ll either see continual fighting on this point or else continued slippage as the debate loses an anchor on the pro-choice side.

You can only win politicial fights by, erm, actually fighting rather than pre-emptively capitulating. It’s a lesson many liberal and soft left parties find hard to learn. In some cases, as with e.g. the way in which the Liberal Democrats surrendered so many of their own policies in order to form a coalition with the Tories, this is caused by a disconnect between electorial rhetoric and the party leadership’s true values. In other, as with the trouble the Dutch green party GroenLinks found itself in regarding a new Dutch mission in Afghanistan, it stems from being too eager to be seen as a serious party in a media climate more hostile towards leftwing than rightwing values.

Denial is a river in Egypt — Mubarak not going yet

Real Life Revolutions
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You know you’re fucked when you give a speech and #Ceausescu starts trending — angryyoungalex.

So Mubarak had his big speech and while everybody expected he would announce his retirement, he instead blew a giant raspberry to the Egyptian people, who are now more angry then ever. It does remind you of the last speech of Ceausescu, that moment when everybody but the great dictator himself had realised that he was toast, that repression no longer worked and compromise was no longer possible, that the question was no longer if the revolution would succeed, but when. Mubarak too had his chance to either violently repress the revolution or to step down peacefully. The first was only tried halfheartedly, largely it seems because the police and hired thugs failed while the army refused, the second was probably never on the cards for him. So tonight the chances have increased dramatically that he will end his days bungling from a lamp post or shot in the streets.

White House envoy has financial ties to Mubarak regime

Life under Capitalism, Real Life Revolutions
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Robert Fisk:

Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama’s envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator’s own Egyptian government.

Mr Wisner’s astonishing remarks – “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical: it’s his opportunity to write his own legacy” – shocked the democratic opposition in Egypt and called into question Mr Obama’s judgement, as well as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The US State Department and Mr Wisner himself have now both claimed that his remarks were made in a “personal capacity”. But there is nothing “personal” about Mr Wisner’s connections with the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises “the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government’s behalf in Europe and the US”. Oddly, not a single journalist raised this extraordinary connection with US government officials – nor the blatant conflict of interest it appears to represent.

That really makes you have faith in the White House’s interest in reaching the right solution…

Big Society: sold off

Cameron, Tories
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The Tory flagship council sells off the Big Society:

David Cameron’s Big Society plans came under attack again today after a Tory council agreed to sell off nine buildings that house charities.

At a tense meeting last night Hammersmith and Fulham decided to press ahead with the sale which it claims will raise up to £20 million to help pay off debt. Critics say the move will force the closure of up to 30 community groups and leave thousands of vulnerable residents without support.

One of the buildings, Palingswick House, which houses 22 charities, is expected to be sold to author Toby Young’s West London Free School. The sell-off comes after Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, outgoing director of Britain’s largest volunteering charity, warned that town hall cuts are destroying the “volunteer army”.

It always was one of those ideas only taken seriously in the Westminster media bubble; in the real world everybody knew what the Big Society meant. “Why don’t we fire you, cut the budgets of every government organisation that might help you, then pat you on the shoulder for doing the work for free we used to pay you to do”?