‘We must be relentless in demonstrating an alternative to right wing demagoguery’
As the Democrats begin to dissect their loss, progressives around the globe will undoubtedly insert their hot takes as they try to undergo a political sociology of the election to further empiricise American voter behaviour and contrast it against their own.
And shamelessly I will present mine.
It was clear that the simplicity of the Trump campaign tapped into a type of emotion and instinct, which was able to be underpinned by a counter-factual narrative. An emotional rage that was presupposed around a sense of decline, and a libertarian instinct that is cautious of government and its ability to yield positive results.
Why Trump won
Trump’s effectiveness has always been his ability to reimagine the future of America. Deriding the record of his opponents in office, and harking to a past that never was, and a future that could never be.
However, in so doing, the political aspirations and re-imagination by Trump’s Republican Party transpired into a meticulousness in broadening their electoral base, election after election.
Courting a new generation of voters, disrupting consensus, and demonstrating that no political party has an absolute monopoly on any community.
By leaning into harsher narratives on immigration, stricter laws on reproductive rights, and a more protectionist economy, Trump was able to acknowledge and differentiate the concerns of a core constituent of American voters, that despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric resonated across a swath of American society.
Like Britain, first, second and third generation communities may be informed by immigration but not defined by it.
And just as it is here, progressives are waking up to the fact that diverse communities constitute an irrefutable body of voters where political allegiances are not forged solely by approximated value, principle or ideology, but rather aspiration and state effectiveness to deliver.
Delivering to bring down the cost of living, to protect the border and to reassert the nation state on the global stage. Voters who the Democrats once regarded as their own, evidently no longer command their support.
Rise of right wing populism
And, if it wasn’t apparent before, the re-emergence of Trump affirms little room for complacency.
Here in Britain, I think we can draw some correlations to the rise of right wing populism and the potential hindrances it presents for those who want to see a progressive society.
Today, socialists and social-democrats alike, have to do away with an assumed ignorance that attempts to scientifically understand lived realities and visceral political emotion.
Arguably, there needs to be a return to the understanding of material conditions – how does labour and capital actually interact with each other in a modern economy and what are the outcomes, as well as re-developed critique of the current political economy and a re-imagination as to how our society can be organised.
Interrogating who it serves, and how can is this reimagination essential to quell the rise of the populist right here at home.
British right wing populism may not arrive in the form of a hyper-celebritised figure whose career has been carefully curated to maximise power and influence, but equally, it could do.
Progressives in western democracies must not concede ground in the face of right wing populism and a world that is in retreat. Rather, as the world tilts ever closer to the new axis of populism to win elections, socialist and social-democratic governments must reassert and renew our values and political methodology for today.
This means ensuring our political programme in government delivers on the promises of the modern social contract, and clearly identifies a broad and multifaceted constituent in our society. For me, that would be ‘the working class’.
A political programme that addresses fundamental concerns around poverty, inequality, wage stagnation and migration, but centres community cohesion as the method to address issues. An international community as well as a local one.
In acknowledging the limitations of the centre-left in power, we must, with value and principle, facilitate community and individual agency to counter growing disaffection, and provide scope for answers to emerge from ‘below’.
Finding an alternative
As the adage goes, a hungry man is an angry man; – with that in mind, our efforts must be relentless in demonstrating an alternative to right wing demagoguery and collectively embrace something new, bold, and necessary.
With community, individuals and the state working in collaboration, there is always scope to address the pertinent issues that global capitalism as arranged today presents.
Trumpsters weren’t just the rallying ralliers attending MAGA coated stadiums, waving placards and chanting ‘Build the Wall’. Trump voters truly were the silent majority.
And here, if we don’t resonate and attend to the silent majority, our ability to truly create an equitable and prosperous society becomes more hastily limited.
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