The West was moving to the right — and then Donald Trump got elected again

Something is happening among America’s allies, and it’s a tremendous relief. For some years now, we’ve seen the MAGA-infused global right gaining a foothold amongst western democracies, largely driven by the same demagogic, nationalist, pseudo-populism that has fueled Donald Trump’s dominance on the American right.

Some countries like Hungary have served as a sort of experiment for the kind of post-democratic autocracies dreamt of by the modern right wing in which government co-opts, intimidates and de-legitimizes the political opposition to create an authoritarianism that dominates the culture and the politics without a lot of overt violence.

But the rise of the far right among the Western allies seems to be stalling out.

  • korazail@lemmy.myserv.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    15 hours ago

    That’s really the crux. There are two trump voters: There are 1) the easily swayed, misled, gullible, uninformed, and other adjectives that imply they are just not fully aware of what is going on; and then 2) the evil assholes who know fully that they are breaking things because they stand to profit from the breakage.

    Class 1 deserves our compassion, and should be helped to understand why their choices hurt themselves and society.

    Class 2 needs to be evicted from this reality.