E.R. Campbell said:
...More right wing, nativist, populist, tribalist leaders or a reprieve for liberal social democrats?
...
You looking to pick a fight? Remember a line from the old Saturday morning westerns....."Smile when you say that, pardner!" ;D
Right Wing - What scale? - Religious, Economic, Political, Oenological?
Nativist, populist, tribalist? - How about plain, old, unexpurgated, unmitigated, unmanaged, unmodified democracy? The rule of the people with their whim being decided pragmatically by simple majority. Accepting that every man is as good as his master and has as much ability, and as many rights, to sit in judgment of the people and rules that influence his life.
Not Social Democrats, of Christian Democrats or Liberal Democrats but plain democrats. Anything other than simple democracy is a route for Managers to borrow authority (from God, the King or the Soviet) and appropriate it as their own - nominally in service of The Truth and Justice. That is merely to swap the decision-maker - one fallible human for another.
The British System, grown from Scottish Presbyterianism, is not about Truth and Justice. It is about pragmatic accommodation and the knowledge that if you don't like the answer today then you can come back tomorrow and continue trying to change it. The world doesn't end just because you lost a game, a vote or an election - or even a war. Its true that we may end up burning a few more witches, and a few less churches will get paint jobs - but better that than being burnt by the guy that hired the painter.
You look back to the transition from Adam Smith to William Gladstone and see what the most conservative force in the world, the Roman church, was railing against at the time -
Free association of people of different beliefs.
People believing whatever they chose to believe.
People making up their own beliefs.
People expressing their own beliefs.
People printing their own beliefs.
Rationalism,
Indifferentism (indifference to what god and how you prayed),
Latitudinarianism (the latitude to believe as you wish),
Socialism,
Communism,
Secret Societies,
Biblical Societies,
Clerico-Liberal Societies,
Separation of Church and State,
Liberalism (Freedom of worship).
1864 Syllabus of Errors This was the same chap that was declared infallible in 1871.
The Church was not alone in these beliefs. These were the dominant beliefs of Europe, aristocracy and commoner.
Britain, her colonies and America were unique in being States where these rules applied - where toleration was given a chance. Where most people, most of the time believed in the fairness of their system and their neighbours.
Where they trust their fate to juries of their peers, including Justices of the Peace, and not to learned judges.
And since I am on a roll just now....
Freedom of the press.
There is no Press. Capitalized. Institutionalized. Centralized.
There is only the press, the instrument, the tool, the extension of the individual's voice - the ability to write down and broadcast one's beliefs - and let the devil take the hindmost.
And if you have a problem with my statements then proffer your own and, if need be, we'll let a jury decide.
Happy New Year and thanks for the opportunity :subbies:
