Iowa and the shifting sands of ideology

As I write, the results of the Iowa caucuses are coming through. The BBC has called them this way:

Iowa caucus results

Republican vote, 99% reported:

• Ted Cruz: 28%, eight delegates
• Donald Trump: 24%, seven delegates
• Marco Rubio: 23%, seven delegates
• Ben Carson: 9%, three delegates
• Rand Paul, Jeb Bush: one delegate each. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rick Santorum: no delegates

Democratic vote, 99% reported:

• Hillary Clinton: 50%, 22 delegates
• Bernie Sanders 50%, 21 delegates
• Martin O'Malley, 1%, no delegates

Discussion suggests that Hillary Clinton has in fact just shaded  Bernie Sanders, but there was not much in it.

My first Monday Forum after I came back from Europe last year posed the question are we seeing the return of the old left and right?  In comments, Evan wrote :I can see a return to the old left. I think it is still the neo-con's on the right." While I could see Evan's point, I wasn't sure:. "I agree that neo-con views are still influential, but there seems to be a pretty big shift underway. The new right parties that have sprouted in Europe are hardly neo-con!"

A week after the post, the photogenic Mr Trudeau somewhat unexpectedly inflicted a heavy defeat on the ruling Conservative Party in the Canadian elections and has since become something of a pin-up figure especially but not only among many on the left. In Australia, the rise of Mr Turnbull has seem something of a shift in the Government position, creating tensions within the Liberal Party among those on the right. Mr Abbott's determination to stay in Parliament and apparently position himself as factional leader for certain right views has created tensions. In an opinion piece, Peter Reith pointed to some of the apparent inconsistencies in Mr Abbott's position.

In the US, Mr Sanders remains unashamedly socialist, while Hilary Clinton is clearly centre-left. On the Republican side, Mr Trump can be allocated to the populist right. He appears to have been successful to this point in creating a coalition of dissatisfied voters that actually spans more traditional party responses. By contrast, Ted Cruz would appear to belong to the neo-conservative right.

Mr Cruz's views are clearly set out on his website. I know that he has some followers in Australia because I read their feeds, but many of his views would appear quite strange to many Australian eyes. Do have a browse and tell me what you think. 

In all this, there are some very strange overlaps in attitudes. Things are not always what they seem. I will come back to that in a later post.