A wise comment on an Open Left thread...

Thanks Glacier for focusing attention on the Brits

This will be a long comment, related to your post but going much deeper. Forgive me perhaps, for hijacking your thread, but this screed has been floating around my brain all week and this seemed like a good place to park it.

The thing about Britain is that their debate is closer to the real meat and potatoes of what this argument is all about. Ours is frustratingly diverted into "Like or Dislike Obama" or "Is the Tea Party Racist" and other tangential questions.

Britain makes it clear: it's really about social democracy vs. neoliberalism.

It is important that an Open Left understand this. This is the debate that is barely allowed to be mentioned on our side of the pond but it's the crucial distinction.

When Paul Krugman argues for Keynesianism he's taking the social democratic side of this argument. But he's not allowed to say so, or at least not willing.