POLITICS
Two cheers for populism
We hear a lot of anger in today’s politics, says Joe Atkinson (Year 10) – but is anyone listening?
I n 2016, all political discussion led to ‘Trump’ and ‘Brexit’. 2017 has brought ‘Le Pen’ and the ‘Alternative for Germany’. For many people, the words that follow are ‘racist’, ‘bigot’, ‘hateful’ and ‘insanity’. What we never hear is real talk of unity. I vehemently oppose these forms of populism, and I suppose I am one of the ‘liberal elite’ (another of our new favourite terms!). But in a world fragmenting along partisan lines, understanding matters. During the EU Referendum campaign, too many of my peers felt that Brexiteers were self-evidently idiotic and that we should strip the vote from elderly people likely to be dead in five years, but who were happily ruining their futures. It’s time to break out of our echo chamber. Where does the populist anger come from? The campaigns mentioned above have promised to smash a failed political elite and correct their political correctness. They have no trust in the political class: only 18% of Americans have faith in their Congress. Why? Firstly, many politicians have failed to deliver on the lofty things they promised during election campaigns — from the Conservatives continuously pushing back their deadline for balancing the budget to Obama’s failure to close the camp at Guantanamo Bay. Politicians seem untrustworthy opportunists who will do whatever it takes to obtain power. Secondly, government deadlock, especially in the USA, has created great mistrust of checks and balances, which
seem to hamper the job of governing. Third comes the rise of a political class, with pipelines for politicians funnelling students from top schools to Oxbridge and then straight into career politics. Most people find this world alien – and even more distasteful when members of political dynasties like the Bushes and the Clintons think they can run on their surnames and not their abilities. Perhaps most importantly, electoral systems in Britain, France and the USA have encouraged parties to play only to the middle classes, so often the swing voters in key elections. But now, the marginalised are showing themselves to be a ‘silent majority’. They are suspicious of a media bias that has ignored them for too long — only 14% of US Republicans say they trust the media, compared to 72% in 1972 — and they are fed up of being branded bigots without being listened to. The ‘liberal elite’ never tried to explain why it might be in the interests of working-class voters to cast a ballot for Clinton, or to vote ‘Remain’. But the key thing about a vote is that it can be used in the self-interest of the person who wields it. Trump’s ‘big, beautiful wall’ is attacked as a xenophobic project. But did anyone really try to engage with it as a response to concerns about high levels of immigration? In such a climate, people like Trump and Farage can capitalise. Their controversial comments create an impression of authenticity. They don’t speak like normal
36
Made with FlippingBook Online document