I don’t mean only the US but in much of the world: in many European countries the populist far right is unseating Christian-Democratic parties (conservative parties), like in Hungary, Slovakia or Czechia. In others like Germany or France the far right is at the gates of power, in the UK, Reform UK is running high in the polls. In Turkey autocratic Erdogan is copying the Putin playbook to systematically dismantle the social-democratic opposition. In Japan, a neo Thatcherite that doesn’t hide she honors Japanese war criminals is about to become the new PM.
Something common I see in all these parties is strong disaffection with the current state of their countries and a longing to an idealized past they promise to bring back, to make countries great again…
Except that societies have changed beyond recognition in the last 40 years, emerging China, India, Mexico and a myriad of south east Asian countries can produce cheaper than us in the developed countries, so called first world democracies are now much older and indebted than 40 years ago (no wonder societies have shifted so hard to the right), buying a house is now waaaay more expensive than 40 years ago, you cannot earn a livable wage just assembling toasters like 40 years ago, you just cannot roll automation and digitization back, no matter how much you complain…
The past cannot come back, neither will it come back just because some people want it to. It’s completely futile, but people are not rational about this, they’re completely emotional and tribal.
It’s like a huge, collective effort in denial: denying that we in the developed world are older, not the first ones in the world anymore, that other countries we always considered inferior to us are even surpassing us technologically while we complain and hope for a savior that brings us 40 years back when we, the white guys, ruled all over.
I don’t see it happening: being angry and voting the far right may make some people feel good, it may make them feel they’re somehow taking their country back, but it’s not going to stop China, India and other countries from developing, investing in new technologies and even creating trade alliances that bypass the US or the EU.
My question: was there a moment in history where societies were so shifted to the right like today? How long did it last?
I had to look at this three times to figure out whether it was a troll or not, and I’m still not sure. But ok, I’ll bite.
I’m an American citizen, and while I was a pretty angry neocon as a college student in the early 2000s, I settled down into a much more open, responsive, empathetic conservatism by 2008-2010 or so. And for about ten years, my politics didn’t change a bit. I still voted for smaller government, I still voted against wars (super funny in retrospect), I still voted in favor of my values (which also didn’t change).
But in that timespan, the far right worked themselves into a lather about Obama, a fury that I didn’t (and still don’t) quite understand apart from cable news stoking the fire; yeah, I disagreed with a lot of his policies, but I certainly never wished him dead. To everyone else, though, he was the antichrist. And so I watched as friends of mine went down the rabbit hole, getting more and more worked up and rabid. When Trump came down the escalator in 2015, I thought it was a blip, and we (conservatives) would collectively realize how far off the rails we had gone.
Instead, I got death threats. My kids got death threats. From people who used to be my friends, all because I dared say that I didn’t think Trump was a good choice. And, remember, my opinions and values hadn’t changed over the previous decade or so.
Since then, it’s gotten much, much worse. And, in fairness, I’ve seen how much I had been lied to, even before Trump, and moved over to the left as a result; but the right wing has gone so far over the edge that some of the posts I made on Facebook in 2005-2006—at the peak of my conservative rage, the stuff that was basically just Sean Hannity talking points—I’m seeing MAGAs pillorying Democrats making those same points for being “radical woke communists.” I’m not talking about similar viewpoints. I’m talking about nearly identical wording, in some cases.
So, no. This meme is absolutely bonkers, in a way that’s so obviously backwards as to bewilder, and the best way to prove it is to point out that George W(MDs in Iraq) Bush opposed Trump. MAGA has moved the window of acceptable political thought so far to the right that today’s Democrats sound like 2008’s Republicans, yet they’re being called socialists. Some of MAGA’s “centrists” are actively looking to rehabilitate the words “nationalist” and “Nazi.” “Small government,” “personal liberty,” and “values voters” are considered left-of-center ideals. At this point even Ronald Reagan would’ve been considered a “lefty” to this new-look GOP.