During the last few weeks I’ve been consuming lots of political reports from around the world. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve read:
- Many countries, not just the US, are having hard time coping with the speed and intensity of the changes affecting people’s lives, i.e. Immigration, Globalization, Automation, Aging Demographics, Gender Conflicts, etc.
- The “Right” political factions take full advantage of the rapidly shifting landscape. The Conservatives employ a slew of simple messages that promise people to restore the order in their lives. These message resonate with many parts of the society, including the Millennials who are not happy with limited employment prospects, educational debt and unaffordable housing cost.
- Liberals have preciously little to offer in return. Their response to the populist slogans consists of calling their opponents “fascists”, “dictators” and criticizing their personality faults. Most importantly, the “left” strategies do not address the core concerns of the voters.
As a result, the Conservative demagogues keep on winning the elections. The self-proclaimed “national saviors” of the Philippines, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Russia, UK, USA not only win at the polls, but appear to grow in popularity.
What can the “Left” do in order to win the voters’ hearts and minds?
All the articles I’ve read go to a great length to describe the problems, but offer no solutions. This “bankruptcy of ideas” stems from the fact that modern voters can not be reached via logical persuasion.
People “feel” what they like and don’t like. For example, the voters don’t want to have Syrian, N. African or C. American immigrants moving into their towns en-masse, and hate the idea of Transgender bathrooms and same sex marriage. They could not care less about the melting polar caps, cancelation of the Iran nuclear agreement or elimination of the Affordable Care Act. It seems that the only thing the voters want to hear is a promise that they will be great again and again, even if they know that it is only a mirage.
Clearly, Liberals need to rethink their entire platform. Why do they push the ideas that the voters don’t care about?
I’m beginning to think that Liberals should agree with their conservative opponents. Let’s surround US by a huge wall, stop all forms of immigration, get rid of the social programs (Welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Security), eliminate the EPA, IRS, and Department of Education, prohibit abortions and same-sex marriage, privatize most governmental functions, reduce taxes to a minimum, etc. In other words, let’s finally implement the Conservatives’ dream of ‘small government”. Let’s see if our citizens, especially the young ones, will like living in a country like that! May be then and only then, they will start to exercise their right to vote, although it may be too late for that.