Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Yes and no. Every election is unique in it's own right and has it's own causes, but the trend is unmistakable.
Conservatives in Britain get tossed. Macron gets tossed in France, elections in South America swing the opposite from the incumbents, all over Europe you see a push to the right against long held centralist governments, Canada swings harder left against an incumbent. People all over the world are scared and unhappy and blame their governments.
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On the other hand the right wing PM held on to power in India, while losing some of his support. Brazil also went with a leftist former president in 2022. Mexico just elected a leftist establishment president.
While I don't disagree with the general point that there's a lot of unsatisfaction with the status quo in many countries, and that fascism and authoritarianism is obviously on the rise, it's good to be careful when making broad generalizations like this. Confirmation bias will get you very easily.
I think people are underestimating the appeal of safe establishment candidates in tumultuous times. I also think a lot of people are underestimating the rising mass appeal of leftist politics. Democrats especially I think would be wise to make a proper move to the left right now, from a popularity point of view.
(Of.course the US system is so dominated by money from rich people that a turn to the left would pose difficulties in election financing.)