The abandoned orphans of the left are taking Britain by storm

Abe Greenwald of Commentary hits the nail on the head.  While we here in the US have problems, it is Europe that is totally, utterly screwed.  They're waking up from a 60 year dream with the mother of all hangovers.  Social Democracy is ending so, so badly.  And it's going to get worse.  Much worse.

The global economic downturn has made leftist ideology obsolete in the official political sphere, but that shift has left behind a nasty problem: Millions of people had expected leftism to make good on its myriad promises of contentment—equality of outcome, free goods and services, and less time spent slaving away at work. How do the post-war generations who were raised on modern liberal dreams—and who bought in to an ever-expanding entitlement state—come to terms with the realities of the left’s failure? (If you’re an American your leftism is likely an outgrowth of affluence, so you attend some anti-corporate documentary screenings and get on with the your life.) But if you’re in Europe, you’ve actually been let down by the system that was supposed to sustain you. Getting over that won’t be so easy. So without a viable leftist blueprint for actual political progress, you riot incoherently, collaboratively, and opportunistically. The abandoned orphans of the left are taking Britain by storm.