Adrian Pabst (Lines of Dissent, 29 November) misdiagnoses the problem with contemporary liberal and progressive politics. It is not that the left has “become economistic and complicit with the oligarchy of finance and tech”. It is that, for all intents and purposes, true left-wing politics has died a slow and brutal death. Left-of-centre parties became dominated by neoliberals in the 1990s, and these same leaders and figures chose to squeeze any hope of true progressive change when the likes of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn failed in the late 2010s. To misdiagnose this issue as a shift in the positions of the left rather than its death is to blame the left for problems brought about by liberal capitalist forces. Rather than a left that has become morally empty and beholden to corporate interests, the early 2020s instead present us with a morally bankrupt neoliberal centre that has replaced the now dormant left. Leftist politics needs a revival to keep up with changing times, but perhaps it should not be the “left-conservative” one Pabst seems to hope for.
Freddie Russell, aged 17, East Sussex
Adrian Pabst lambasts the contemporary left (Lines of Dissent, 29 November) and states that “nowadays it represents mostly the interests of capital”. He argues that populism is “a blowback against the social disruption produced by [its] progressive policies”. Here, he conflates social liberalism with economic liberalism. It is this ongoing commitment to neoliberal, Third Way thinking that is hindering the left. As Sohrab Ahmari argues in his review of Bill Clinton’s memoirs (Critics, 29 November), “the thrust of Clintonian policy, like its Blairite counterpart… was to detach the left from the working class – indeed, from the notion of class as such. Clintonians bought wholesale the neoliberal idea.”
Yet many on the left reject it. Joseph Stiglitz tells the Democrats to dump neoliberalism; Thomas Piketty tells French progressives the same. Will Hutton and Liam Byrne offer policies that tackle burgeoning wealth inequality. All offer routes to reconnect social democracy with low- and middle-income households. In contrast, Pabst offers vague assertions that ordinary people’s fears have been ridiculed, above all on immigration. He calls for a “left-conservatism” when even Kemi Badenoch says “there is no point in trying to get back to the past or reverse social liberalism”.
The way forward for progressives is not to ape Nigel Farage, but to make a clean break from economic liberalism and develop anti-austerity economics in combination with a progressive social, health and environmental agenda.
Jon Bloomfield, Kings Heath, Birmingham
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