A new consensus. Is it possible?

In the Democratic world, there was an overall political consensus from the 1930s to the 1970s.

This was a left wing consensus.

It was brought about by the depredations of the great depression. Reinforced by the horror at the handiwork of the extreme right, the Nazis. This consensus oversaw the advancement of the state until it took over half the economy or more.

From the mid 70s onward, this consensus collapsed. The weight of over empowered workers, who misdirected the collectivism of unions into a defence of their own, new vested interest. The corruption of an unholy alliance between the liberal left and the authoritarian apologists for the Soviet Union. The discrediting of nominally leftist leaders, such as Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam, or Wilson in Rhodesia. The leftists' had become a new elite. A new version of the establishment.

Therefore forces of the right, while maintaining the banner of conservatism, could offer what seemed a new radical approach to politics. So came the alliance of libertarian free marketeers with social conservatism. The idea that freeing a sector of society to get rich would benefit us all. 'A rising tide lifts all boats'. So a second consensus was formed. This entailed the idea that the state was inherently inefficient and should do as little as possible, that all state action stifled enterprise. That tax was evil, wealth, and particularly wealth 'creators' good. All that was need for progress was freedom for employers, and limits on the freedom of workers to organise. This consensus was reinforced by the fall of the Soviet Union, bringing a clutch of new nations into the orbit of the west, nations that would distrust the left and feel nothing but gratitude to the 'Cold Warriors' of the right.

The economic and banking crisis of the last few years leaves this second consensus as tarnished as the first was 35 years ago.

The second consensus was personified by Reagan and Thatcher. But before either of them took office Menachem Begin won election in Israel in 1977. His election ended thirty years of leftists dominance, thirty years that represented the whole life of the state of Israel.

This leaves me wondering, if the left wins in Israel today, does that signal a new leftist consensus is about to spring into being? From Obamacare in the US to economics trumping security in Israel, all the signs are there.

It is the time of the 99%.

UPDATE----

Or maybe not. Netanyahu won, apparently. Israel views itself as a democracy, it therefore gets the government it deserves. One that rejects peace with its neighbours. That was the change Netanyahu made to win. Israel has declared itself to be more the country not of Netanyahu than Ben Gurion. Let it be judged as such..