The West was moving to the right — and then Donald Trump got elected again
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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.
I wouldn’t give Trump the credit for this. Yeah he is a great example of how bad it can get but the move to the left has been long on its way and picking up speednfornsome time! Trump may have boosted a snowball that was already rolling
Except it’s really not a move to the left, it’s just a slight slowing down of the move to the right. Fascism is currently gaining footholds in much of the western world.
So, while the handful of left victories are great, it’s super dangerous to frame them as a reversal of fascism.