Sept 24, 2026
There was an election in Germany this month and the press is focusing on the gains made by AfD, a party of the right whose policies are against mass immigration and other such things. The press is all a-twitter with impending doom for the world. Yet, in the same election in Berlin the Die Linke (The Left) won control of the city government with 26% of the vote.
What does Die Linke stand for policy wise you ask? According the WSJ editorial by Joseph Sternberg, rent-control; housing nationalization; antisemitism; Marxist policies about the economy; et al. In other words progressive policies. Fascism and Communism are creations of the left. Their strongest support came from the Islamist flank that has developed in the past few years due to the policies of the previous leaders, especially Angela Merkel.
So we have both sides of the political spectrum rising up in the “U” shape called the horseshoe effect. Why is this?
My opinion is the middle has been fighting internally and getting nothing done. Those left and right of center argue about this and that in order to have a perfect something, the enemy of a good something. This is the same phenomenon that occurred when companies abdicated certain pieces of business to newcomers which allowed them to grow in strength to than challenge the current leaders in a market, see “The Innovators’ Dilemma”.
Our politicians are failing us, allowing the extremes of both sides to control the agenda. Get with it folks. As the old saying goes, “When they came for me there was no one left to speak for me.” Martin Niemoller.