The Financial Times publishes an article today about Sarkozy, by a French political science professor, which is a wonderful example of the combination of push to the right and simultaneous "reality creation" we on the left have to face everywhere.
Could Sarkozy save the socialists?
Mr Sarkozy (...) has followed a reformist agenda that cannot be labelled as neo-liberal.
Follow me for a deconstruction of an archetypal "concern trolling" article which reveals a lot about the strategy of the right nowadays.
Mr Sarkozy’s agenda combines four elements: a strong law and order agenda aiming at preventing the revival of the rightwing National Front; a cautious deregulation of the labour market; a transfer of resources to the wealthiest through a new fiscal policy; and an appeal to traditional national values.
The description of the agenda is appropriate: it's a pretty traditional reactionary agenda, explicitly favorable to the rich over the workers, and distracting the latter with fearmongering calls to order and nationalism. What's noticeable is that this an unashamedly rightwing programme, and that one does not hear a single pundit suggesting that Sarkozy should tone it down and flatter the center instead of pandering to his "base": the scared old, the narrow minded petite bourgeoisie and the selfish ambitious.
No, no call for moderation - quite the contrary, and that's where the "reality-creation" comes in - a description of this programme as "not neoliberal" and "reformist". The goal is to paint a avowedly rightwing agenda as being centrist, not to dilute it. Thus the claim for the labels of the center, but not the policies of the center.
The law and order agenda is popular within the rank and file of the left, and a growing number of leftwing leaders share Mr Sarkozy’s desire to fight urban unrest. The deregulation of the labour market provides more political opportunities for the left in a country where attempts to reduce the number of civil servants are observed with suspicion. But everybody knows that the status quo is unsustainable. If Mr Sarkozy succeeds in deregulating the labour market without strong social opposition, the left will not repeal the new law if it comes back to power.
The next step, of course, is to "concern troll" the left by pre-shaping and pre-labelling their reactions. Fighting labor market reform is useless, because it is a self-evident truth that any policy strongly favored by the hard right is inevitable and any alternative "unsustainable", just because they say so loudly and ponderously and often enough. Fighting the innate desire of the real people of the left (as opposed, naturally, to its out of touch, effete, intellectually bankrupt, leaders) for security is just as pointless - because 9/11 changed everything, immigration is a "real problem", and globalisation has fatally hurt social-democracy, bla, bla, bla.
For some strange reason, the author discreetly avoids the topic of policies that "transfer of resources to the wealthiest" - which is the ONLY goal of the neoliberals and their lackeys, and which naturally would be fought be the left if it were not distracted by the constant barrage, kindly provided by clueless or complicit mass media, on its demise or accusations that it is weak, soft, out of touch, etc, etc...
The right does not want the debate to be on policy, because they know their blatant greed will be rejected, so they spend their time hurling insults at the left, alternatively calling it treasonous on security, and reactionary on economic policy, and keeping the focus on process rather than on content - i.e. trying to hide reality with their loudspeaker revisionist version, claiming to be the real "reformists", the party of progress, and that (in an ironical marxist twist) representing inevitable historical trends.
The right today is out to transfer resources to the wealthiest. Full stop. The rest is theater.