Reversed Omens

While one might get the impression that the USA is shifting to the left, more and more people in Europe believe that Russia under Putin is becoming the saviour of the West. A commentary by Karl von Habsburg.

Text: The US elections are certainly interesting. Among the Democrats, candidates who four or eight years ago would have played a humorous supporting role at best are suddenly becoming acceptable. There is Bernie Sanders, who, in the very year the Soviet Union collapsed, declared at a press conference after a visit to Moscow that the communist system in Russia was like paradise on earth. He has not revised his stance since then. There is Elizabeth Warren, who attempts to establish socialism as a concept in capitalist America using far-left ideology. Both candidates are among the four most successful frontrunners of the Democratic Party. Naturally, they also benefit greatly from the mistakes of other candidates—the colourlessness and senility of a Joe Biden, or the inexperience and lack of values of a Pete Buttigieg.

Given the current composition of the American electorate, it is highly doubtful whether the two aforementioned candidates have a real chance at the American presidency. Currently, it looks as though we will experience Donald Trump in the role of President for another five years.

However, the tendency for candidates from the extreme left to become increasingly acceptable in America is undoubtedly remarkable. From the current perspective, it is by no means excluded that in five or nine years, a socialist ideologue will be elected President of the United States. The erratic governing style of a Donald Trump could certainly contribute to this.

What would be the general consequences of this? It is likely that, on the one hand, military spending would be drastically curtailed, and the role of the USA as the world’s policeman would come to an end. On the other hand, social spending—and thus personnel and production costs—would rise massively, and America’s competitiveness against countries like China in particular would drop drastically. The value of the US dollar as a reserve currency would potentially be called into question.

At the same time, however, we are experiencing the exact opposite in Russia. The powerful oligarchs pursue a pseudo-capitalist course, arranging themselves both with the state and with mafia-like, criminal structures. The Russian President presents himself as the saviour of the West and pursues a hard ‘conservative’ course. He supposedly defends values such as family and church, invoking the traditions of a Tsarist Empire. The fact that ‘minor details’ such as human rights, freedom of expression, and personal liberty fall by the wayside is of little consequence in this context.

If anyone had told Europeans of my generation 20 or 30 years ago that we might witness the USA undergoing a strong shift towards a socialist concept, no one would have believed it. The same applies to Russia’s transformation into a nationalist and supposedly value-oriented regime. The USA going left and Russia (supposedly) right—it sounds like fiction, or does it?

But where does this leave us Europeans? Both ideologies lead to extremes; we experienced this over seven decades with the confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. This can only be a call for an independent European course, which must be clearly market-oriented but must not forget traditional European values.

And if you were to ask me today whether in 20 years I would rather see my grandchildren studying at Princeton or at Lomonosov University, I would indeed choose the United States, but I would still hope that they choose Rome, Madrid, or Vienna.

The article originally appeared on the site of Karl von Habsburg.