Summary
Donald Trump’s influence on global right-wing politics is waning as his association increasingly becomes a political liability.
In the UK, Nigel Farage’s popularity has dropped, with 53% of Reform Party supporters now viewing Trump unfavorably. This shift undermines Farage’s chances of political success.
Internationally, leaders like Canada’s Pierre Poilievre and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are distancing themselves from Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump’s economic promises have faltered, with US growth forecasts down and stock markets struggling.
The fading appeal of Trumpism marks the end of his ideological hold on Westminster politics.
Well, I hope you can afford me the benefit of the doubt when I say that my critque comes from a left leaning perspective. I see this kind of response a lot online, particularly in left leaning spaces: “the left’s authoritarianism is a conservative conspiracy” with a generous helping of accusations of ‘both sidesing.’ I don’t think those characterizations are true or helpful.
The general public in most western nations all more or less agree with the flagship policies of the left. Whether that be universal healthcare, freedom of choice, marriage equality etc. The question then becomes; why do people vote against their own beliefs? What is it about “The Left” that is so unappealing that people would rather vote for fascists?
It seems to me that the reason the left is doing so poorly in Europe and NA is because we’ve been hijacked by purity spirals, exacerbating our already greater proclivity to fracture. Our message is not reaching the people who would be inclined to vote for left leaning policies because it is drowned out by so much of the more authoritarian online discourse, some of which has spilled out into real life politics. That’s not to mention our aversion to recognizing or admitting fault in our own movement. We’re each like the proverbial frog in boiling water; complacent to the growing failings and dangers within our own movement because we’ve slowly become acclimatised to it.
The authoritarian tendencies of the left’s flank are, in my opinion, partly to blame for some of what we are seeing unfold and my fear is that unless we can acknowledge and reign in some of that we will, as a society, continue to careen toward something considerably more awful than Trump, Le Pen, Farage, Poilievre, Meloni etc. The backlash to the backlash will compound and compound until society ruptures.
Of course it could be that I am entirely too pessimistic and the future will be bright and rosey.
I can sort of see what your saying, but I disagree that it’s “left authoritarianism”. Maybe I’m just an optimist lol. I can 100% agree on “purity spirals” atleast. A progressives worst enemy is another progressive at times. However. I will point out that I’ve only ever experienced discourse like that online. I think it comes from a good place, that people are trying desperately to push people further to the left as much as they can…an effort to “convert” people, if you will. I can see how people may see it as trying to be controlling. It’s like, wherea the line though?
I think it’s easier to be conservative in a sense because your allied to essentially “stop the left”, but for the left it’s never been about “stopping the right” it’s about how to we make x,y,z better. I think we lose ourselves when other people are like 18 steps ahead, and arguing for things that are so far left that it sort of screws up any sort of core, party message.
I think the best that a progressive can do in times like these is to have humility and be humble. There’s so many things that need to happen that it’s impossible to have a stance or understanding on literally everything. Just because people don’t protest or push for the things someone else supports or understands, doesn’t mean that they aren’t progressive enough.
I don’t think your wrong that our messaging needs a lot of work though.