Many observers are somewhat perplexed by the extremely poor showing of the Left in the recent European Parliament elections, especially given the current economic crisis. One would have thought that parties with left-wing, socialist inclinations, those that promise more state aid to voters, would have done better among voters who are concerned about their long-term financial security.
The exact opposite happened, however. The Left was murdered in Europe’s elections. The real winners were right-wing parties.
The apparent mystification shown by the liberal press, such as The Economist, just once again goes to show how out of touch the Left and the liberals are with the concerns of the proverbial man in the street. This especially applies to well-off left-wingers.
The sardonic term “chardonnay socialist” is the often applied to those upper-class individuals who tend towards left-wing political views. These are people living in the better suburbs of London, the northern suburbs of Johannesburg or those on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. From the comfort of their penthouse apartments or mansions, they often want to lecture others on the “benefits” of multiculturalism.
What they will never do, however, is to experience those “benefits” for themselves. They will not, for example, go and live in suburbs like Harlem or cities like Bradford, where the “joys” of multiculturalism can be experienced first-hand. You will not catch a British chardonnay socialist living in a suburb with more mosques than churches, or an American one living in the inner-city area of Philadelphia. In South Africa they will live in their secure complexes in lily-white suburbs, hidden as far away as possible from the unwashed masses in Soweto.
While the white South African chardonnay socialists pay lip service to diversity, they strangely almost always marry white partners. One wonders what the statistical chances are of a truly colour-blind chardonnay socialist marrying a white partner, seeing that 9 out of 10 people in South Africa are not white... Chardonnay socialists in South Africa especially are however by no means all white. They are often nouveau-riche black plutocrats, the politically connected who became exceedingly rich without adding one iota of economic value. Like Julius Malema with his Mercedes and Sandton dwelling, they too will waste no time in escaping the unwashed masses for the leafy northern suburbs of Johannesburg, while still at the same time maintaining their left-wing rhetoric.
The ordinary voters in Europe, the working men and women, often do not have the luxury of living in Kensington or Highgate. They are forced by economic circumstances to live on streets where all the shops sell Halaal foodstuffs, where the hair salons specialize in ethnic hair. They have to compete with immigrants, often illegal immigrants, for welfare and jobs. They are the ones who experience the “joys” of diversity and multiculturalism first-hand.
Is it any wonder, then, that anti-immigrant parties like the Dutch PVV and the British BNP have shown remarkable gains in recent times?
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