The 9th of November 2016 is a day which is still shaping history today, with the ‘’impossible’’ happening of Donald J. Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States of America. Yet, if people noted well before the trends of politics for the past 5 years, it would’ve been clear that his election was not only a surprise, but only one piece of the shift towards populist politics worldwide. Even the more ‘’moderate’’ candidates were appealing to popular trends, of leaving the European Union in Britain initiated not by Nigel Farage directly, but instead David Cameron, who made a risk to get a majority government, and paid the ultimate price of his political career, and possibly leading to the detriment economically of his country, despite the benefits of more sovereignty at most, even which is being limited due to the dependency of the UK to Britain. But how did it lead up to this and most importantly, is this a trend to continue, go further or moderate on party policies?
Many argue that the personality politics is a backlash to bipartisan, or two party politics. For example, the stranglehold of Fianna Fáil & Fine Gael in Ireland, Republican & Democratic in the US and Labour & Conservatives in the UK. While this may be due to the rigid first past the post voting system in the UK and US, Ireland is unusual of having this, despite a large amount of parties with fairly sizeable percentages, due to the confidence & supply agreement, their input in limited by Fianna Fáil’s discretionary opposition to certain Fine Gael policies. In some way, due to the similarities of parties, without them even realising it bar the UK, it’s led to parties using individual members to show their enthusiasm. People are drawn more to personality traits and situational variables (Feldman & Johnson, 2014). This might be Donald Trump’s ‘’twitter politics’’, Michael D’ Higgins’ dogs, or even Theresa May’s dancing queen moves. Watching politics now, many people would have a much stronger opinion on individuals rather than political parties, transcending colours or flags.
This also has led to the rise of populist politics, with parties using personality politics to say stuff that may have never been uttered by any of the status quo parties. While it may lead to a greater discussion of important issue, the likes of immigration, welfare and the economy, it could and has led to more conservative or even extreme ideas, with anti-immigration parties rising up quickly across Europe as a backlash to migration and the refugee crisis. While I may argue these parties are not extreme for their immigration policies, their use of populism to say hate comments and what can be only called racism, is both dangerous not only for the public but democracy as a whole, and lead to a new wave of ‘’them’’ and ‘’us’’, not seen since the 1930’s and the rise of fascism.
Some may argue, this is just liberal overreaction, that the circle of politics is just coming around again. However, it’s a necessary evil that must test all of us, either by conforming to the ideals or standing up against it, and I know which side I’ll be standing on it. If they say history repeats itself, it’s time to be the one who creates a new history, rather than repeat the mistakes of the past.
-Ross Boyd, lead writer
Comments