From Donald Trump to Danielle Smith: 4 ways populists are jeopardizing democracy

• He argued in a celebrated essay that even the prosperous, post-Second World War United States was not immune to the radicalism of authoritarian populism.
• The so-called Red Scare of the 1950s was “simply the old ultra-conservatism and the old isolationism heightened by the extraordinary pressures of the contemporary world.” Seven decades later, Hofstadter’s words ring true again.

Paranoid politics

• With so much money and power behind it, this paranoid style of politics — with its enemies lists, demonization of opposition leaders and often violent language — has gone mainstream.
• But is there anything to fear from the red-hot rhetoric of the paranoid style of politics?
• In Hofstadter’s time, after all, American conservative politics turned away from fringe radicalism following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.
• The following year, Lyndon Johnson defeated right-wing Republican insurgent, Barry Goldwater in one of the largest landslides in U.S. history.

1. The shrinking middle ground

• We are now in a world of zero-sum political contests, with a shrinking middle ground.
• Conservative parties often force extreme referendums to maintain their grip on a deeply divided electorate.
• Republicans are now doubling down on the abortion issue, even though they’re facing pushback from some state legislatures and governors.

2. The working class isn’t benefiting

• Nevertheless, conservative parties around the world are marketing themselves as parties of the working class.
• Populists recognize the working class is essential to their success at the national level because of the “diploma divide” that now separates right and left.
• It used to be that working people recognized education as a path to prosperity.

3. The rich and powerful direct the chaos

• In a war of all against all, it’s not the wealthy who lose.
• Furthermore, once a lust for vengeance takes hold in the general public, it’s almost always being directed by elites with money and power who benefit financially or politically from the chaos.

4. Assaults on the rule of law

• The paranoid style of politics has entered a new phase with a full-spectrum assault on the rule of law — from inside government.
• Populists are lying when they argue they want to empower the rest of us by divesting judges of their authority to oversee democracy.
• As he runs again for president, he’s already telegraphing his violent desires, promising pardons for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

The road ahead for populists

• The defeats of Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro don’t represent absolute rejections of their movements.
• Despite an indictment for alleged financial crime and being found liable for sexual abuse in a civil case, Trump is still the 2024 front-runner.
• Read more:
  Why populism has an enduring and ominous appeal

  We can’t count on an easy institutional fix, like a grand electoral coalition to push the populists off the ballot.

Red lights flashing

• Nor can we count on the right to step back from the abyss of culture wars.
• We can’t even say for certain that the populism will recede in the usual cyclical manner.
• All citizens can do is offer is constant, concerted pushback against the many big lies told by populists.