Nobody is going to accuse MB of failing to fight the good fight for better democracy, less unequal capitalism, and a purer version of liberalism. These are our touchstones. We mercilessly unearth the hypocrisies of the elite in pursuit of these goals.
But, if you are serious about such reforms as opposed to just holding a grudge, you have to acknowledge the successes as well. Moreover, when a true force of evil comes along to exploit your flaws so that it can occupy and destroy what is good about the system, then you must fight back.
Instead, at the ABC, we have the droning and immovable prejudice of Stan Grant, who claims to support these goals but, really, one has to ask if he just hates the liberal democratic system. To wit:
China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, got uncomfortably close to the truth when he lectured American officials about creating turmoil by invading other countries, having a “Cold War mentality” and trying to impose its democracy on the world.
Of course, Yang would not admit to China’s appalling human rights record, crushing of dissent, or flouting international rules and claiming disputed territory.
But when he sat down with his American counterparts in Alaska, he made it clear that there is another big voice in the world — and the American led so-called “global liberal order” does not run the game.
Perhaps his most telling comment, though, was that far from being a model of democracy, “many people in the United States have little confidence” in their own government.
And what of Chinese hypocrisy, Stan? Where’s your outrage at the Xinjiang genocide? The cultural annihilation of Tibet? At the enslavement of 1.4bn Chinese to a repressive regime? The crushing of Hong Kong freedom? The incipient move to destroy Taiwanese freedom? A footnote does not cover it.
China is a supposedly socialist regime. You know, for the people and all of that. Yet its wealth disparity is almost as bad as that of the US, which promises no such balance:
Chinese socialist not US capitalist hypocrisy
As well, where is Stan Grant’s acknowledgment that the American people have elected a traditionally left-wing government in a landslide? The Biden Administration is setting about aggressively undoing the inequality that has rotted the heart of US liberal democracy, via the FT today:
- Democrats are increasingly confident of the passage of their latest $3tr stimulus bill.
- $1tr is for hard assets while $2tr is for human infrastructure such as education and child-care spending.
- This will be materially funded by lifting the corporate tax rate to 28% and a minimum tax for global trotters, tax hikes for $400k households and capital gains hikes for $1m+ individuals.
- All of these initiatives have popular polling support.
This is not a minor blip or ephemeral shift in politics. It’s a structural change for the better. Wall Street’s Bank of America calls it the “war on inequality”. It even reckons American trade union membership is about to turn historically higher as the cultural shift beds down:
War on inequality
I’m not going to pretend that this will be resolved overnight. It will take decades and is certain to be a halting counter-reformation. But the American people have swung traditionally left to address many of Stan’s Grant’s criticisms while he has acknowledged none of it.
It’s time to wake up, Stan. Your pro-China prejudices are dated and hypocritical. Your anti-Americansim is dated. Your research is dated.
Your prejudices are dated.
