HIstory, Karl Marx wrote, repeats itself – the second time as farce ("das andre Mal als lumpige Farce"). Gerhard Schröder rode an anti-American wave to victory in 2002. Peer Steinbrück thought he could do the same this election cycle in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations concerning the NSA data-mining activities. For weeks Steinbrück and other SPD leaders have been hyperventilating about how the US has violated the rights of German citizens, and how chancellor Angela Merkel is complicit in abdicating German sovereignty to the "Amis".
As the facts in the "scandal" emerge, the SPD's campaign tactics appear increasingly desperate. Anti-Americanism is the only arrow in the quiver, and it's turned the party into a "lumpige Farce".
Der Politologe Christian Lammert von der Freien Universität zeichnete
gegenüber der NZZ am Montag das Bild von zutiefst verunsicherten
Kontrahenten, die ganz einfach in den Nebel schössen in der Hoffnung, zu
treffen und nicht getroffen zu werden. Die SPD, so Lammert, habe mit
ihrer Taktik der empörten Beschuldigung Merkels und ihrer eilfertigen
Bedienung des stets virulenten Antiamerikanismus eine völlig falsche
Strategie gewählt.
(Christian Lammert, professor of political science at the Free University, described on Monday to the NZZ the picture of a deeply insecure opposition that was firing wildly into the mist in the hope of hitting a target and not being hit itself. The party, according to Lammert, has followed the wrong strategy with its campaign tactic of making outraged accusations against Merikel and its hasty eploitation of a virulent anti-Americanism)
And even some officials in the SPD are alarmed at the course of the campaign. They realize the party is facing a crushing defeat on September 22, and are hoping to live to fight on another day:
Innenpolitiker der SPD distanzieren sich vom bisherigen scharfen Kurs
ihrer Partei in der „Snowden-Affäre“. Sie kritisieren, dass die
Vereinigten Staaten in die Nähe eines Unrechtsstaates gerückt würden und
die Arbeit des Bundesnachrichtendienstes in Frage gestellt werde. „Die
Debatte hatte mir zu sehr eine antiamerikanische Komponente, die ich
nicht für angemessen halte“, sagte der SPD-Abgeordnete Fritz Rudolf
Körper der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung (F.A.S.).
(Domestic politicians of the SPD are distancing themselves from the sharp course the party has taken in the "Snowden Affair." They are criticizing that the United States is being labeled a "lawless country" and that the work of the German Intelligence Service is being questioned. "The debate has taken on an exaggerated anti-American component, which I don't feel is appropriate," Fritz Rudolf
Körper, a SPD member of parliament, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday Edition. )
2 comments
I think the mass surveillance as leaked by Snowden is a bigger threat for the Americans than for the Germans. The SPD is flogging a dead horse. People don’t care about food scandals in Germany, they don’t change their behaviour as consumers. Meanwhile, polls say they think MSM are even more corrupt than politicians. Why should they care about mass surveillance? That’s anticipated since years: If you can’t stop it, try to enjoy it. Polls show SPD at 23%. There’s a left majority in Germany since many years, but in doubt the SPD rather elects a conservative politician for chancellor. Who has betrayed us? The social democrats. What did the SPD expect when they nominated Schröder’s buddy to run this campaign? The inventors of Hartz 4. Red painted @ssholes. Of course they’re now playing the anti-american card, too. They are in the push mode.
SAID – [UNSAID]
Obama to Leno: We don’t have a domestic spying program. – [But we do have a programm, that does a lot of domestic spying. We have wiretapped DC during first quarter 2012. The NSA has, in fact, been listening in on thousands ofpeople’s phone calls and NSA analysts are instructed how to explain their targeting decisions without giving information to FAA overseers.]
Certainly just a Lumpige Farce for NSA apologists. Therefore, will Obama go after the WaPo for espionage charges now? Where is Jeff Bezos? lol
Americans shouldn’t care what some Germans say about the NSA and their own secret services. That’s just a sideshow.
Need some help?
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.):
“The executive branch has now confirmed that the rules, regulations and court-imposed standards for protecting the privacy of Americans have been violated thousands of times each year. We have previously said that the violations of these laws and rules were more serious than had been acknowledged, and we believe Americans should know that this confirmation is just the tip of a larger iceberg.”
Obama perfectly blends into a long row of great American Presidents. Unlike Bill Clinton. Congratulations.