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 think that - on a global scale - a fair amount of people has cause to be grateful to Trump. Whether it’s intended or not, he’s tearing down the current geopolitical statu quo and waking up people politically.
On the flipside, I do worry that we narrowly avoided the fire in order to stay in the pan, to subvert the old saying. Over in Canada, we reelected a party that has a lot of flaws, and that their defining benefit is “isn’t the conservative right”. I’m glad we avoided a conservative sweep, but let’s not pretend the shady opposition is significantly better.