Far-right leaders are winning across the globe. Blaming ‘the economy’ or ‘the left-behinds’ won’t cut it
Far-right leaders are winning across the globe. Blaming ‘the economy’ or ‘the left-behinds’ won’t cut it
The economy matters, but the likes of Trump succeed by offering voters revenge for problems both real and imagined, says author and Salvage founder Richard Seymour
Summary
Far-right leaders are gaining globally, with Trump’s victory in the US presidential election echoing trends in Hungary, India, and other countries.
Donald Trump’s 2024 victory marks a historic first where he won the U.S. popular vote, supported by diverse groups including young, Black, and Latino voters, as well as the working class—a reversal from previous elections.
This win aligns with global far-right gains, reflecting voter frustration with economic hardships and liberal policies.
Analysts argue that the far right’s appeal lies in its “politics of existential revenge,” which vilifies minority groups and offers imaginary disasters as scapegoats.
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People continue to blame "the economy" on Trump's victory. Trump was campaigning on actively making the economy worse. So to say that people didn't vote for Harris because of the economy is either demonstrably false or proves that the American people are infinitely dumber than we thought. If you have a problem, you don't vote for the person who's campaigning on making your problems worse.
And you've got the Democrats saying that we should have put up Bernie Sanders. Right after complaining about Biden being too old. So apparently solving the problem of Biden being too old is either (a) voting for Trump who is virtually the same age, or (b) voting for an even older white guy with the same policies. Notice something here?
And before the "they're trolling" excuses come out, people who actually have respect for women wouldn't be "trolling" like this. You don't put your face to the trolling if you don't sincerely believe it.
But sure. You just keep thinking that it was the economy. Then keep putting up minority candidates and wonder why you keep losing to people like Trump. The hard fact remains that American voters in general are far more racist and misogynist than Democrats want to admit, and they showed (for the second time) that they are willing to hand over the country to a pile of garbage like Trump before they even consider voting for a woman.
Think of it. Democrats spent months complaining that we shouldn't put up the old white guy again. And now that Trump won, they're saying that we'd have won if we just put up an even older white guy. And 10+ million of them were so pissed off that we didn't put up an even older white guy that they'd rather sit home and allow an old white guy with dementia to take office anyway rather than vote for a black woman.
People didn't want to vote for a woman. Especially not a black one. That's all there is to it. The rest are just excuses.
The underlying assumption here is that these voters aren't low information voters. The economy was what they themselves say they voted while thinking about. I believe it's pretty clear that perception is more important than reality for these voters, and their perception could not be more wrong about that and many other issues. There is certainly misogyny and racism in there too, but also keep in mind that was largely felt in people staying home, not voting for Trump. Harris got far fewer votes and Trump received nearly the same as last time.
There's no easy one size fits all blame to be had here I don't think, as nice as simple explanations are. I believe lack of populist messaging, following safe trends rather than creating them in the minds of constituents (with exception of the weird insult), lack of emergency covid situation, sexism, and appeals to status quo systems that have flaws all played a role.
A lot of big words to fog a simple problem. Here's a breakdown.
Most are low information voters. Because humans are selfish and lazy.
Governing is complicated. People are busy with their own sh*t. That turns people off (lazy).
America makes it simple, binary two-party choice. No need to be informed when you just pick one of two teams, and you grew up in one already as a kid. (Lazy)
Busy on voting day? Nah, not voting (80 million Americans, lazy, selfish)
If they vote, they pick the choice that offers the things they like the most (selfish). Don't matter if it's lies or will make other things worse. No time to consider, we're busy. (Lazy)
Why are we low information voters? Can look up anything from reputable sources on the internet in seconds? Nah, how about cat videos. Porn. Dancing with the Stars is on (Selfish, lazy)
Trump bullies and Harris nags. Rather watch someone else get bullied than be nagged (Lazy, selfish)
Harris is black and woman, and has a career in public service. Trump is rich white man that barely works who acts like he's successful with beautiful women. Which do people wish to be like? (Selfish, lazy) [See: Freakanomics - selling crack vs working at McDonalds.]
Americans are lazy and selfish, resulting in low information voters. Low information voters vote against their interests and cause their own country's eventual downfall.
It isn't the Democrats fault due to messaging. It isn't Republicans fault due to propoganda.
It is always singularly only one group responsible for all problems in America, and always has been. "We the People".
Americans continue to get the country they pick.
Till Americans overcome their base human instincts en masse to overcome their own laziness and selfishness, which will be never, things will keep being taken advantage by the American oligarchy and others.
After the USSR fell the Russian people mistakenly sold their country's assets for free chicken dinners and Levi's jeans [see Red Notice by Bill Browder] due to being horribly low information citizens ("What are stocks?" Oligarchy formed and answered.)
Americans could very likely soon do the same. Seems the goal. Half of Americans seem likely to do it gleefully, if it lowers egg prices.
Completely agree with these two traits being the primary obstacles. I think the Democratic party's ability to acknowledge this is the key to future election wins. You conclusion though that the solution is for Americans to "overcome their base human instincts en masse" is very incomplete.
A few suggestions if you want to appeal to someone who is lazy about gathering and retaining information and getting off their butt to vote:
- State directly why they should care and what you're going to do about it in the first 2 sentences, then tell them what to believe about it instead of relying on them to have a thought.
- Create a campaign against the media they consume to instill doubt that they're getting the full picture (they obviously aren't).
- Present facts mostly to disprove the points they've been fed rather than defending your positions. This is both to prevent competing influence where you will obviously lose as well as to be offensively confident rather than defensively meak.
- To appeal to the dumbest people amongst us who can barely figure out how to breath, also vaguely gesture that you will fix everything wrong and take public concerns to your office as a personal checklist.
- Surround yourself with actual entertainment, not just politicians. The Democrats have the support of every artist who matters, have a mega-mash concert.... We're the cool party, don't pretend we're not. They should want to watch it like the Dre Day Superbowl even if they don't agree with the candidate.
A few suggestions if you want to appeal to someone who is selfish and wouldn't lift a finger in a holocaust if the target wasn't them:
- TELL THEM WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES FOR THEM. I'm so sick of the messaging not containing things like ROI for the government programs. Talk about how for every house we remove lead paint and pipes from it will mean less taxes for you because more people will have the chance to pay them and not be dependent on the system. Talk about how many leading technologies originated with public funds that were only possible through government spending including technology they're watching this through, or the reason they're not dead in that car accident, or why they haven't choked and died on the air.
- Tell them what the opposition wants to take from you and give to the rich, whether technically true or not, make them defensive and want to distance themselves from their donors. They're coming to steal your hard earned tax dollars and give it to SpaceX to use technology we all paid for. Government leads and these corporate wellfare ghouls follow, and my opponent represents the ghouls. Say the exact amount of money Tesla and SpaceX gets from the government, point out that's why Elon is groveling behind him collecting government crumbs like the most pathetic pidgeon ever.
This all fits firmly into the messaging solutions of leftist populism by the way.
The underlying assumption here is that these voters aren’t low information voters. The economy was what they themselves say they voted while thinking about.
I simply refuse to believe this because it just doesn't make sense. If these voters aren't low-information voters, they'd know that Trump plans to increase their expenses by about $400 per month. They'd know that Musk has already said he plans on making things exponentially worse. They'd know that Trump literally has no economic plan besides "get rid of the brown people." And they either voted for him or decided to stay home anyway? That doesn't make the first bit of sense.
Harris got far fewer votes and Trump received nearly the same as last time.
This is my point. The policies weren't the problem. Dem policies such as abortion did just fine. The "old white guy" thing mysteriously disappeared once Biden dropped out of the race, and now people are saying we could have avoided this by putting up an even older white guy. They certainly didn't like Trump's policies because Trump doesn't have any and Project 2025 is wildly unpopular. All 50 states went significantly redder.
It certainly wasn't because of policy. Dems did just fine there.
It wasn't because of downticket. Senate and House races went largely as predicted.
It wasn't because Biden was old. Trump is virtually the same age and Bernie is even older.
It's not the economy. Trump plans to make things worse.
The excuses that people are giving just do not make the least bit of sense when up against even a minimum amount of scrutiny. We have people saying "women are property", "your body, my choice", sending texts to Latinos telling them to pack their bags, and telling black people to report for slave duty. We don't have people out there celebrating "the economy is gonna be great again!".
"the economy" is a convenient excuse for people who just don't want to admit they refuse to vote for a black woman. If the "economy" is a concern, you don't vote for the guy who's planning on increasing your expenses by thousands of dollars per year.
They definitely are low information voters. When people hear things they don't like from people they do like, they always assume it's not going to hurt them until it actually does. This might eventually work if they heard it enough, but they never will and don't care enough to pursue the information on their own.
In terms of the old white man thing, I think it's fair to say that while people say they don't want old people running, what they really mean is old people who aren't all there. This should eliminate Trump, but he's never seemed all there and he's had a more shallow decline than Biden. Bernie doesn't meet this qualification because he's still as sharp as ever. Biden's decline was shockingly fast and even turned liberals away despite his government still operating
I did get the very strong vibe from undecided voters that they really wanted to vote for Trump but couldn't tell anyone the reason was racism or sexism because they care too much about their image with liberals or their own self-image.
That all being said, a trending search term on election day was, "Did Joe Biden drop out?" So clearly, the low information problem should be doing some heavy lifting in our conclusions.