Spineless, unprincipled, constantly making excuses about why they're not doing anything, unwilling to do literally fucking ANYTHING to help the people they say they represent.
What are the underlying material conditions driving this?
Here in BC, Canada, the "social democratic" NDP government recently got a majority government, which means they can do literally anything they want. Pass any legislation they want. Pass any laws, any taxes, literally whatever the fuck they want.
And what have they done? FUCK ALL. Nothing. Not a single piece of legislation that I can think of. They're taking as long as they possibly can to implement $15 minimum wage, no paid sick days, no card check legislation, fucking NOTHING. Instead of using the pandemic as the obvious reason to pass this legislation they are hiding behind it as their excuse to avoid doing literally anything useful.
This seems to be the case all over the Western world.
WHY?
on Scandinavia, I can only know it through the american lens. and that means I can only know it as a pig. If you're from Scandinavia, or have some connection to it, it is awesome to me that you have this take.
often, the bourgious American take is that they are a racially homogeneous state! that's legit one of the most common takes. from liberal nyt writers to libertarian/conservative types, that's the take!
I'm not going to beat around the bush, I used to be an american chud and for me Scandiniavian racial homogeneity was THE explanation for why Scandiniavia was so well run.
learning about the struggle in scandiniavia, of all the folks who laid their lives on the line, of all the struggles that still exist in politics and mass organiziation today, thats when I started reading Marx.
the selling point of liberal ideology is that 'we are beyond history.' it's a selling point which embraces complacency. we are going to mars, we are creating human computer robots blah blah blah. but we are sending people to mars as indentured servants, and using human computers for the benefit of private enterprises.
class conflict has yet to be overcome, and there will be conflicts after that. nobody alive has gone beyond history. that's the biggest lesson Marx has taught me.