Yeah I agree, still a long way to go before we get to that point thankfully
However I think people like trump and movements like pegida (and to some extent Daesh, especially in the third world) appear to represent the same challenge to the establishment that the left used to and imagines it still does. they are all involving people in extreme right-wing reactionary politics that never used to be. They certainly appear to currently frighten the establishment a lot more. I mean you imagine trump writing an op ed in the guardian about 'why my wall on the US-Mexican border is not only feasible but necessary'. When he said that stuff about the Muslim shutdown the entire political establishment of the UK and the US lined up to condemn him despite coming out with sly allusions to that sort of stuff themselves, when left wingers come out with 'outrageous' stuff they are ridiculed or more often ignored. even marine le pen and nigel farage lined up to distance themselves from him. I mean as much as the left has gone on about the poor treatment of corbyn in the media it's really nothing to the sort of pasting trump has had from all parts of the political establishment around the world.
it's not even due to the "historically weak position of the left" when the left, even what's considered the far left, are able to get speaking engagements and be listened to and become entrenched in mainstream media and academia in a way that the far and extreme right, let alone islamist groups such as daesh etc are not really able to do. i don't think there really exists a significant "challenge" from the left in much of western europe (although i think the US is different and a bit better). i don't think it's a case of the left being weak it's that it's become so integrated into capital that it no longer represents any sort of challenge, whereas the extreme reactionary right represents far more of a threat to the existing capitalist establishment and has more of a chance of putting its programme into practice. and the problem is that the neo-liberal right and establishment politicians can often rely on a large segment of the left to line up with them to "defend" the existing society against the extreme right, such as when the french left called for a vote for sarkozy and chirac against le pen. so essentially in the de facto position of defending the state and the existing order against the right and being perceived to be doing so.
i mean can you really say the state have lined up with the far right in germany given the treatment they had over the weekend? we know that some german cops are racist, but is it really the case that they sprayed them with water cannon to give them more sympathy and support? are they really that scheming? i'm sure that cameron and many of the CBI and most establishment politicians and business interests would far rather see a soft-social democrat such as the likes of corbyn in power, who wouldn't be able to do a great deal due to the systemic conditions and would be out in one or two terms anyway, than a trump or pegida equivalent let alone someone even further to the right than that. despite the fact that he and people like him have willingly fostered such a climate.
so in western europe anyway, it's fucking shit, and i don't really know what anyone can do.
