A common meme heard from right-wing commentators on Sunday morning talk shows is that “Europe is moving to the right,” presumably because they hate their inept government healthcare and don’t want to suffer under high tax rates anymore. This is simply a lie, and can be proven by looking at the actions of “conservative” leaders of Europe and the party platforms of those “conservative” parties in Europe. One of my personal favourite examples is that of Angela Merkel and the Christian Democratic Union in Germany.

While it’s easy for Pat Buchanan to say that the election of Angela Merkel means that German people hate their healthcare and “socialist” government, her government’s actions speak otherwise. During the depths of the recession in the past year, in order to curtail layoffs, the Merkel run German government offered to pay 90% of worker’s wages if those companies kept them in work…how conservative of her. France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, another supposed “conservative” made similar moves in France, and a few months ago we saw that both Germany and France were officially out of recession and had growing economies again. Apparently when government ensures workers the right to a job and makes sure that they’re making real goods, wealth is created…who knew? Meanwhile, we’re left with unemployment and right wing conservatives in this country who would hardly let President Obama pass a public works bill.

Even in Europe’s more conservative half-brother Britain the Tory party doesn’t dare speak about abolishing the NHS, Britain’s socialized healthcare system. In fact, when the otherwise unknown foothills level British politician toured the U.S. speaking of how much the British people hate their healthcare system both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party spoke out against him, they love socialized medicine! Anyone who actually observed these elections in Europe knows that the main wedge issue between the left wing and right wing parties in Europe was immigration, not healthcare or taxes. The right wing parties there largely support the ideas of their government healthcare, their social safety nets, and their pro-worker trade policies. These European conservatives just oppose another raise in the minimum wage, or further increases to the safety nets that dwarf ours, or an increase in “free trade” that we would still call protectionism here.

It seems to me that the conservatives of Europe are to the left of the Democratic Party here on many issues, foremost being healthcare and social welfare. If a candidate in Europe ran for office with President Obama’s exact domestic views, what party would he belong to? If you listen to some conservative commentators, you would think he’d be part of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Well in reality, advocating for small government involvement in healthcare if any, relatively very low taxes, and minimal regulations on laissez-faire capitalism certainly puts him to the right of Angela Merkel.

Tags: Europe, Obama

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