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Comment by mschuster91 | Hacker News Reader

> The whole "socially progressive, economically middle of the road" political coalition that would win every election on HN is extremely unpopular in the real world.

Is it? "Economically middle in the road" is somewhat around classic Social Democrat politics, a staple of European politics. The problem with the classic European Social Democrat parties is that they shot themselves in their feet by a combination of neoliberalism (e.g. German SPD post-2005/Hartz IV or British Labour) and individual scandals (corruption).

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"Economically middle in the road" is somewhat around classic Social Democrat politics

Even more conservative parties in Europe are moving that way. Just look at the Tories in the UK for example, proposing massive government spending plans paid for by raising taxes.

That’s surprising only if you consider the Tories as being economically liberal. They are conservative in the sense that they look after the interests of the old aristocracy and a coalition of the rich. Their policies are intended to benefit a specific subset of the population. Their taxes (as well as things like the universal credit cuts) are perfectly aligned with that ideology.

They don’t have a problem with the concept of taxation, just taxation of the powerful.

They increased UC for the pandemic, and then reduced it, much like the Furlough scheme, and both of those policies would have been considered centre or centre-left responses if done by a centre or centre-left party.

> They are conservative in the sense that they look after the interests of the old aristocracy and a coalition of the rich.

I thought this was the literal definition of right wing? The side that supported the king against the democratic will of the people?

And is there anyone who has a rhetoric of "less taxes" who actually intends everyone to benefit? That seems like a mirage and it's all done in service of the rich and powerful.

Which is a hard policy to sell to ordinary people, unless you wrap it in some cheap bigotry to confuse them.

No it's surprising because austerity was the Tory platform until Boris Johnson.

The Tories are a coalition of three major faction: One Nation, Thatcherites and Cornerstone.

One Nation, which has tightened its control from Cameron onwards, is closer to centrist Christian democrats, who e.g. oversaw expansion of universal healthcare and welfare systems by themselves or together with the left in many European countries.

People see this as a departure for the Tories largely because the Thatcherites were in control from 1975 until Cameron.

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