Linkspartei
This weekend the humble delegates made their choice. The former East German Socialists are now called Linkspartei - PDS (Left party). The name sounds pretty strange in English. Believe me, it sounds pretty weird in German, too.
To make their decision even more ambiguous they also decided that locally the "PDS" part may be dropped completely. As if people anywhere in the country are more likely to elect these political die-hards if they are not reminded about the party's past.
It's like saying: We want to leave our past behind us - but not really. We are still the same old bozos and a few new ones. If you close your eyes, you might not recognize us. Folks, wake up. If you close your eyes, you don't actually disappear either.
This reminds me on Monty Python movies on so many levels.
HEAD KNIGHT: We are now... no longer the Knights Who Say 'Ni'.And this one:
KNIGHTS OF NI: Ni! Shh!
HEAD KNIGHT: Shh! We are now the Knights Who Say 'Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-pikang-zoop-zoo-owli-zhiv'.
RANDOM: Ni!
But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?You could give the quote a little socialist twist and turn it into: Apart from taking away the freedom of its people, suppress the political opposition, build crappy cars, ruin the economy and destroy the ecosystem, what have the German Socialists ever done right?
I dedicate this last quote to Oscar Lafontaine:
There's no Messiah in here. There's a mess all right, but no messiah.
This would be pretty funny if the Left Party were some kind of underground movement. But what the scares the shit out of me is that fact that current polls show them at 10% of the vote. And they are gaining in popularity while I am writing these lines.
The established parties (including the very-well established Greens) need to do a much better job debunking the Socialist's agenda. This is getting serious.
