Similarities between the recent Danish election and Obama's election 2008

So... I've been thinking about this issue since Helle Thornings victory 3rd October 2011.

There are so many similarities between the so called left wings victory in Denmark and the US 2008. They aren't pretty either. They are of the kind that makes me think that our democracy here in Denmark is at best under heavy attack and probably already rotten to the very core. Please allow me to elaborate:

The similarities begin in the shallow end. The US empire get's its first black president. It's a historic event and is followed closely by everyone around the world. Denmark also has a historic victor in the shape of the very first female prime minister. So far so good.

Both candidates (Helle Thorning and Barack Obama) gets elected on a progressive agenda and they also both painted themselves as unifiers of a divided country. The US had suffered from George W. Bush's 8 years in office leaving a huge debt and unsolved wars behind for the new incumbent. Helle Thorning also took over a broken country. The far right had succesfully managed to create a really hateful atmosphere with public anti islamic racist rhetoric that was unthinkable before the second 9/11 (Al Quedas attack on the twin towers. The first 9/11 was a much worse act of state terrorism but that's a different story). The so called fiscally responsible and disciplined right had also managed to bring Denmark through the financial crisis in a worse condition than any of our neighbours. This was managed by legislating in a way that inflated the already growing bubble of the housing market, letting people take risky stupid loans, so naturally when the shit hit the fan it hit harder.

As progressive as they both pretended to be, they both continued the failed policies of the right wing. Even the way they managed to do this was similar. The Democrats so called centrists also referred to as the Bluedogs have twins in Denmark. They are called the Radical Left. The only thing radical about them though is their market fundamentalism and their sucking up to big business. Just like the Bluedogs. The Social Democrats and the Socialist People's party sold out completely turning even more right wing fiscally than the centre right governments in Germany and other European countries. Sometimes they use "negotiations" with the Radical Left as an excuse and other times they just take an exact opposing position than they had before the election. And they do it with a straight face. It's amazing.
Is it starting to smell rotten yet? Reminds me of an old saying...

Then there's the bank packages and bailouts which are also quite similar. The too big to fail argument constructed to justify a de facto merge between the financial institutions and the state in the US. That is also called a fascist economy by at least one definition.It's not AS bad in Denmark yet, but I'm spotting some of the same trends.

The general trend in both countries is that more and more private money gets channeled into the parliamentary institutions in the form of campaign contributions. In the US you have the super PACs which are positively insane constructs. If you haven't heard about those, you should look them up. In Denmark the financial institutions use loopholes in the law to non transparantly donate money to the campaigns. It's disgusting. Now Denmark and its democracy are by no means as screwed the US ditto, but we're definately moving in that direction and if nothing is done to stop that development it will continue until democracy is something you read about in fairytales.

Please help raise awareness about this. I will be adding more similarities if I think of some. I know there are more. Please add your own in the comments section if you are aware of some.