Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonded
The main difference is that pre-pandemic these candidates would never hit the main stream in Canada. Now they are and they are winning.
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They’re taking over at the nomination level, where a small fraction of citizens participate. Only something like 25 per cent of Albertans were opposed to vaccine mandates. So being antivaxx is not mainstream in Alberta. But there are enough of them that they could take over a party at the nomination level.
Same with abortion in the U.S. The policies pushed by the Republicans aren’t very popular even in the U.S. - less than 15 per cent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in all cases.
Ideally, holding unpopular ideas would make those parties unelectable in a general election. But in our polarized political culture, people often vote against a party, rather than for a party. And if the stuff the other party stands for is even more outside your comfort zone, then you’ll hold your nose and vote for the kooks on your side rather than the kooks on the other side.
And so we get governments that promote all sorts of non-mainstream policies.