The Guardian says it's all the Left's fault - we agree

The Guardian tells us that the current state of politics is all the Left's fault, something we agree with:

The Guardian view on France: Fillon v Le Pen is the wrong contest

The shift to the right in western democracies is undeniable. The left shares the blame, in France as elsewhere

Although we go further, it is not a share of the blame but all of it which is to be placed there. We say so not just because it's gloriously fun to bash lefties - but because we do think that the plot has rather been lost.

We here of course are classical liberals, neoliberals even. And we are so because we're really on and of the left if we are to define that in any sensible manner.

We regard the great goal of global economics to be the eradication of absolute poverty - we'll sweat the small stuff later. We regard the great victory of the past 40 years as getting that abhorrence down to under 10% of the population and hope to be here to celebrate its eradication in a couple of decades' time. We also insist that classical liberalism has always been on this properly defined left - Cobden's great free trade campaign was so that the working man had cheap bread to eat after all, rather than that restrictions upon imports continue to fatten the landlords' pockets.

We think it instructive to look at those surveys done of economists in the US. They trend Democratic, as of course do all US academics. It's not quite like sociology where a Republican cannot be found but a solid majority of professional economists define themselves as D not R over there. And yet when surveyed about policy they (92%) near unanimously slam rent controls, reject wealth taxation, agree that income taxation should not be at confiscatory levels, worry that minimum wages can be too high and so on all the way to free trade is a good idea. That is, avowed lefties who understand economics roundly reject most of the economic policies put forward by left wing parties.

And that's the problem, the disconnect and the fault. For what most want is really rather simple. Just the knowledge that life is getting better, that children will have more opportunity, live better lives, than their parents. This is not a working class, nor middle class or any other class goal, it's a human one. And the method by which it will be achieved is to get those economic policies right and sweat the small stuff later.

Meanwhile, the vanguard of the modern left is condemning those who might decide to use skin colour as a guide to whom they might wish to rub uglies with on a gay dating app. As Owen Jones just did in The Guardian.

Thus that problem with that modern left - they're just not concentrating on what is important. Bettering the condition of the average guy 'n' gal is, thus policy should be all about producing that improvement. And that the masses aren't voting for the modern left is simply evidence that the masses realise that's not what said modern left is offering. And that really is the left's fault.

If there were an economically rational left out there we'd support it. Rational here just meaning one whose policies were consistent with the declared aim, that of bettering the condition of the average person. Sadly this isn't there and that's both why it's not being voted for and why the left that is there should be blamed.