Obama Can Learn from the German Pirates

German political normally gets little notice in the US press, so it is gratifying to see the rise of the German Pirate Party receive some in-depth coverage.  The Boston Globe has a very good piece on the recent Pirate Party convention in Neumuenster and sees the party as essentially a non-political protest movement against establishment politics in Berlin:

"Many vote for the Pirates as a sign of protest. It is not directed against democracy, but it's based on the unhappiness with the functioning of the established parties," said Alexander Hensel, a political scientist who studies the Pirates at the Goettingen Institute for Democracy Research.

Analysts say that despite the nation's robust economy and low unemployment, many Germans are disenchanted with the established parties, fueled by outrage over seeing the government bailing out banks and businesses to save the economy from collapsing in the wake of the financial crisis.

The Globe even makes reference to the controversy of neo-Nazis in the party ranks:

Recently the party has been marred by a scandal over how to handle the far-right past of some of its members, with many Pirates refusing to exclude anyone from membership. But on Saturday, party members overwhelmingly approved a motion saying that any effort to deny or minimize the Holocaust would be against the party's fundamental values, German news agency dapd reported.

Today the New York Times has an op/ed piece by Steve Kettmann who suggests that President Obama should embrace some the Pirate's tools to organize his 2012 campaign - especially to energize younger voters who propelled him to the White House in 2008: 

If Mr. Obama had followed the Pirate method, he would not only have sent updates via Facebook and Twitter, but he would have involved larger numbers of supporters in an extensive dialogue and given them an actual say in determining such priorities as which issues to pursue in his first months in office and how much to reach out to conservatives.

That sounds naïve, and inside the Beltway, it may be: lobbyists and money drive the discussion, not input from Indiana. But it is precisely that sense of disconnection, comparable in many ways to the disillusionment felt by young Germans, that has sapped energy among Mr. Obama’s base and led to protest movements like Occupy and the Tea Party.

Finally, back to the German media outlets, I found this analysis by Jakob Augstein quite interesting.  Augstein sees the Pirates as populist expression of discontent in Germany.  But in contrast to the right-wing populist parties that have disrupted polibics in France (Le Pen) , the Netherlands (Geert Wilders), Switzerland, and the US (Tea Party), the Pirates represent the chance for forward-thinking change:

Auch in Deutschland hat der rechte Thilo Sarrazin mit seinen islamfeindlichen Kultur- und Rasse-Thesen eine Millionenleserschaft gefunden. Aber politisch hat die deutsche Islamophobie keinen wirksamen Niederschlag gefunden. Was den Populismus angeht, beschreitet Deutschland jetzt einen Sonderweg - und dieses eine Mal kann man sich darüber freuen: Die Piraten habe eine neue Partei der politischen Emanzipation geschaffen, nicht eine der Furcht. Angst müssen nur die etablierten Parteien haben.

(In Germany as well the right-wing Thilos Sarrazin has found millions of readers with his anti-Islam racial and cultural theories. But this German Islamophobia has not had any measurable political impact.  With respect to populism, Germany is going down a different path - and this time we can celebrate this. The Pirates have created a new party of political emancipation, not one based on fear.  Only the established parties should be afraid. )

Comments

[koogleschreiber]

At last, a fair coverage. By the way, in Germany you don't count as unemployed anymore, if you don't get a job within one year. Then you are Hartz IV and fall out of the stats. Jobless rate plus Hartz IV double the numbers...

[FabMax]

koogleschreiber, that's not true. Get your facts straight.

[koogleschreiber]

It is simplified, that's true. But 2010 we had 7,400,000 in Hartz IV, though the stats counted only 2,500,000 as jobless. If you are sick, you are not jobless. If you are older than 58, too. If you are a 1-Euro-Jobber and work more than 15 € the week, you are not jobless. I could go on. The jobless rate is a doctored rate, everybody knows that.

[FabMax]

You can get ALG II (that's the correct description btw) even if you are working full-time, but are not able to make ends meet (and that's not 1€-Jobbers only). The biggest single part of those who receive ALG II are counted as jobless. Also, in that total number (7.5 mio) you stated are children included, too. So that number is misleading (and outdated), and your first statement is untrue.

According to the newest monthly report of the Agentur fuer Arbeit, there are 1.89 mio jobless people who receive ALG II, and 2.54 mio of those who receive ALG II, but are not "available to the job market". There are also 1.71 mio people on ALG II who cannot work, 95 % of which are children. That makes 6.14 mio people on ALG II in total (the offical number is 6.232 mio; I probably missed something).

There is nothing "doctored" here. Everything is clearly stated in the official publication. You just have to be able to read it, or make the actual effort to do so.

The rest is just spin.

[dz alexander]

// Recently the party has been marred by a scandal over how to handle the far-right past of some of its members, [...] on Saturday, party members overwhelmingly approved a motion saying that any effort to deny or minimize the Holocaust would be against the party's fundamental values[...] //
+
I read somewhere that authorities tend to consider anti-semitism or anti-Israel positions to be a defining characteristic of "far-right". Therefore those mulitiplying groups who profess admiration for Israel & Jews get left out of the mix and are not watched. I wonder if this is the reason that the so-called donair killers & their police helpers had such a long run.
For example the PI blog you often mention is not consider far-right.
I"m looking forward to see where they fit Mr. Brevcik in the next Europol terrorist report.
From the report
NSU deaths ARE listed as rightwing terrorism. [now that they know who they are]
BUT
// Suggestions made in open sources that the attacks in Norway in July 2011 were acts of right-wing terrorism, or had links with right-wing extremist groups in the EU, have not been substantiated. //

I guess "link" means something different than it does for muslims.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/emcdda-europol_annual_report_2011_2012_final.pdf

[michijo]

I, like many others, often wonder that presidential elections are so expensive, so why in fact doesnt Obama use Facebook and Twitter, both free services? In essence, the question is an insult to Obama, who actually took money for his campaign from a variety of sources, and if I am correct, BP was one of the donors. Why, when we have the free internet, do politicians waste so much money on campaigns? The campaigns can do little but insult the world of people who are not extremely wealthy.

[Zyme]

Based upon the fact that human rights mean so much to you David, I would have really been interested in your thoughts on the immense amount of pressure put on Ukraine by Berlin in the recent weeks (re Julia Timoshenko), which has even caused the Ukrainian side to speak of "Cold War methods" employed by the Germans (by discussing a boycott or withdrawal of the Euro-Championship in favor of Germany).

[David]

@Zyme - based on what I know Julia Timoshenko is being unjustly incarcerated, so I am proud of Berlin's position.