Terry Sarten: Right's all wrong from where I'm standing

The right wing of the political spectrum in the US and UK have got their countries in a bind and seem in no hurry to admit to their part in the boomerang effect created by their political ideology.
In the US, the Republican Party and its co-conspirators, the Tea Party, have managed, through political gamesmanship, to create a national and worldwide financial crisis. This began with a legislative need to approve raising the US debt ceiling to allow fiscal leeway in responding to economic woes and increasing unemployment.
The Republicans decided that somehow it was their patriotic duty to block the passage of the necessary legislation. They were so successful at making the US Government look vulnerable that the country's international credit rating was downgraded, the sharemarket plummeted to new depths, the greenback tumbled and the world's economies all went into crisis mode.
Well done, the Republicans.
They managed to achieve what enemies such as al-Qaeda failed to do. They have pulled the economic rug from under the feet of millions of their fellow Americans and diminished the influence of the US as a world power. All because they don't like their democratically elected president.
They should be pleased with themselves. While constantly proclaiming they hold the higher moral ground, the Republican Party have betrayed their country to the manipulations of international moneymen. Many Republican supporters will have lost big time in the resulting sharemarket crash, but it is hard to know whether they will connect the dots and realise what their leaders have done.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Conservative government in the UK is feeling the boomerang effect of its austerity policies and proposed cutbacks in public spending against a backdrop of rising unemployment. A quick look at recent events in Greece and key Arab states should have told them that being male, young and unemployed is a recipe for trouble. There is no condoning the looting, firebombing of buildings and terrorising of neighbourhoods. As many commentators have noted, what the mobs are doing is not political protest but extreme shopping. They have been smashing their way into retail outlets to steal electronic gear, cellphones, sneakers and all manner of fashion items.
The Conservative Government has labelled this thuggish behaviour. Indeed it is, but the high rate of unemployment, a media and social environment that constantly promotes and idolises stuff as a measure of progress, combined with an ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots does create the perfect social Petri dish in which to incubate a sense of entitlement that can turn on the forces that have created it.
Conservative governments all around the world are based on the ideology of every person for him or herself. Collective responsibility is considered namby-pamby and for wimps. The gospel according to the right (which, in some countries, also lays claim to being Christian) is that the competitive market will sort the wealth to those who deserve it. If you lack education, feel disenfranchised and are unemployed, then it is your own fault, not the socio-economic environment in which you live.
Events in the UK and US should be a warning to NZ. John Key may spend a lot of time distracting voters with his ready smile and easy manner, but it is his henchmen, Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Paula Bennett, that we should be watching. When crossing the voting paper later this year, it will be wise to look right, look left and then look right again just to be sure you have seen what is coming.
Terry Sarten lives in Whanganui and describes himself as a parent, social worker, musician, writer and political punster.