Are voters turning their backs on authoritarians?

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Are voters turning their backs on authoritarians?

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Is authoritarian populism finally being rejected by citizens around the world?

In 2016, Donald Trump successfully fused his ****** frustrations with globalism with false allegations about

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. Eight years later, he is still doubling down on identity.

But this time around, his message seems worn and brittle. He lacks a silver bullet like

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or a border wall that he can leverage to make Democrats look weak.

The global scene

In India, Narendra Modi

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because he didn’t address the country’s deeper, long-term economic woes. Youth unemployment and out-of-control inequality are just two reasons voters have begun to lose patience with

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.

****** ********* populists like Mexico’s former president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) have had recent success with left populist messaging because they recognize the importance of economic well-being to political success.

For millions of Mexicans, AMLO’s policies

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compelled them to vote, and that practical incentive created a new political dynasty.

Claudia Sheinbaum, AMLO’s

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, broke barriers as Mexico’s first woman, ******* president. But that wouldn’t have happened without her predecessor’s enormous popularity. And that popularity was based on his economic commitment to the poor and to increasing their spending power by raising the minimum wage each year.

Over the past six years, the number of Mexicans

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from 52 million to 47 million.

Endless culture wars

There is a good reason for ************* populists

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rev the engines of economic grievance and cultural insecurity. Popular movements run on emotion, and people in rich countries often get fired up about

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, like ****** and values.

The constant boil of identity politics in Europe and North America has taught political scientists two things.

First, authoritarian populism is becoming so culturally extreme that it can hurt conservatives more than it helps by giving progressive voters a reason

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forcefully on election day, as they did on the second ballot in France in July.

What’s more, activating the

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of populist voters is ******* when the right loses its grasp on issues that most matter to people and affect their economic well-being.

British election

The Conservatives in the ******* Kingdom suffered a

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following

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and the chaos of five Tory prime ministers over

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.

The Tories ******* to act on the soaring cost of living and falling competitiveness, made even worse by COVID-19 inflation. Instead, they tried to

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.

Leading up to this summer’s election,

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—not enough to make xenophobia a winning policy platform.

In fact, political polarization in the U.K. has been driven in part

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. Sometimes populist messaging backfires.

Unsurprisingly, the Labor Party won a huge victory. Even so, Nigel Farage’s right-wing

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netted five seats in Parliament. As the third largest party in the legislature, Reform *** is supported by 15% of the electorate, showing just how mainstream extremism has become.

But it also shows how populist pandering is fracturing post-Cold War conservatism and alienating the center. If center-right parties follow the

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, they will find themselves in a ***** end where trying to incite voter rage overshadows everything else.

Turnout is everything

In the ******* States, Trump’s relentless slurs—aimed at everyone from

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to migrants and Joe Biden—are good for the far-right movement because it nurtures new extremists.

But it’s bad

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. His advisers keep urging him to make a real case to the ********* people about issues

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, but he seems incapable of abandoning his grievances.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s team, meantime, has made access to *********

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—and it’s one in which millions of Americans can see the direct impact of public policy on their lives.

Trump has begun to cast about for a pivotal

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issue such as the rising cost of food to rally the faithful, too. But he’s also

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on hate speech and ***********.

It’s worked before, but it’s a riskier bet now. In 2016, he could blame the economic ills of middle America

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, but no more. Inflation is cooling. The U.S. Federal Reserve is

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soon, just weeks before the presidential election.

Populists are having an eventful year, defeated in both the U.K. and France while winning in

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,

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and

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.

Getting out the vote is always the key to defeating authoritarianism. If enough citizens who believe in the values of democracy show up to cast their ballots,

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near and far could sooner or later get clobbered.

Provided by
The Conversation

This article is republished from

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under a Creative Commons license. Read the

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Citation:
Populism’s summer of discontent: Are voters turning their backs on authoritarians? (2024, September 7)
retrieved 7 September 2024
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#voters #turning #backs #authoritarians

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