The rise of the right is the story of first quarter of the 21st century. It will be a matter of great debate amongst future pundits to understand and find reasons why the right became such a dominant thought process despite its monstrous absurdities and unworthiness for modern society. What went wrong in the last century, a century that saw progressive ideas flourish and gave the universe a moral edifice, that made liberal democracy a powerful instrument for the spiritual renewal of liberal societies, which put regressive ideas to shame and made unfashionable any idea that was not based on equality, liberty and fraternity? After the Second World War, the world witnessed a great number of societies being freed form the yoke of colonialism and imperialism. No doubt many of them are still struggling to sustain themselves as a democracy, but the impulse is so powerful that democratic storm can be temporarily halted but the tide can’t be reversed. In this context, the world is aghast to see republicans still routing for Donald Trump and a sizeable section of Americans still wanting Trump to win elections.
Trump is the most unworthy candidate to have occupied the White House. The New York Times in its editorial has shown several times its disgust at Trump’s candidacy. The paper wrote a couple of days ago, “Mr Trump denies the legitimacy of elections, defies constitutional limits of presidential powers and boasts of plan to punish his enemies. And in these attacks on America’s democracy, he is also attacking the foundations of American property.” He is a convicted felon and is still facing many criminal charges in the courts of law. That itself would have made him ineligible for the office in the eyes of Americans who pride themselves to be the oldest functioning democracy. Kamala Harris is the other candidate but there are doubts about her winning the election.
Trumpism is so powerful an idea that Joe Biden, the incumbent president, had to leave the fight to Kamala. This happened when, under Biden’s leadership America regained some sanity that had been lost under Trump’s presidentship. Even the economy that was facing serious competition from China and unemployment was soaring high, has stabilised. Unemployment is not only under control but data suggests that millions of new jobs were created in the last four years and yet Biden was seen as a losing candidate. Trump’s rise raises serious questions about the viability of democracy as a state structure and also as an idea.
Kamala Harris’s candidacy offers a mixed basket. If she wins the elections then she will be the first woman, also the first person of Asian origin, to be the president of America. Her appointment will be the summit of all the universal values that America propounds and celebrates in the name of liberal democracy, which makes America such an attractive destination for citizens of the world. But if she loses then it can easily be argued that America, despite its claims of having a deep-rooted democracy, is still not mature enough to accept a child of immigrant parents, a woman and a person of Asian origin as its leader. That will be a sad commentary about all that which is called Americanism. If I take the liberty of replacing the word ‘Neoliberalism’ with ‘Americanism’ then in the words of Gary Gerstle, it can be said that Americanism “is a creed that prizes free trade and free movement of capital, goods, and people. It celebrates deregulation as an economic good that results when governments can no longer interfere with the operation of markets. It valorises cosmopolitanism as a cultural achievement, the product of open borders and consequent voluntary mixing of large number of diverse peoples. It hails globalisation as a win-win position that both enriches the west while also bringing unprecedented level of prosperity to the rest of the world.”
Trump stands for anything and everything that is not-Americanism. He is opposed to mixing of diverse people, he rejects cross border migration and the concept of open border. He wants an inward looking America, allergic to globalisation. In his heart he has no respect for democracy and it is no wonder that he gave no straight answer when he was asked in TV interviews if he would be ready to concede defeat if he were to lose elections. According to Pew Research, 72% voters believe that Kamala will concede defeat if she loses to Trump, but this number shrinks to 24% of those who are of the opinion that Trump will not accept defeat if Kamala Harris wins. But what amazes me is that despite the violence unleashed by Trump supporters at Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, when Biden’s victory over Trump was to be formalised, he is still unmatched in terms of popularity among Republicans and still there is a possibility that he might become the president again. What does it signify? This certainly indicates that a large section of the society the world over and especially in the west, is deeply unhappy with the working of liberal democracy. It has failed to live up to the aspirations of the people and address their concerns. A definite resentment towards liberal democracy is palpable which rejects the very thought of equality and mixing of people.
One can argue that unprecedented interconnectedness of people, which has brought like-minded people close to each other and turned them into a community, has done a great disservice to the modern world. Interconnectedness has helped ideas which once were considered unfashionable and regressive find supporters and that gave them courage to their propounders to say which was anathema earlier. And as technology improved, such communities of people became bigger and bigger, they became emboldened, they realised that they are not alone and thus they got legitimacy in the eyes of a large section of society.
Then, liberal democracy as an idea drifted from economic issues to identity politics. Issues like ‘gay rights, homosexuality, rights of minorities and of immigrants and status of women’ as listed by Francis Fukuyama became more prominent in public discourse which was not liked by a section of society and in their opinion are not the real issues. Till the economy was doing well, people were not much bothered but when recession hit the globe in 2008, it made people insecure about their future and they started looking for an alternative. Right-wing ideology which was dormant for a long time suddenly became attractive. People related to it when it spoke against immigrants and about how people from other races and origins were a threat to the native people.
Instead of looking inwards, these ‘outsiders’ became easy targets for the loss of jobs, unemployment and economic problems. ‘Multiculturalism’ which once was vogue, suddenly became the reason for all the ills. No wonder that the same Europe which once embraced people of all race and colours, found them a threat to their own society and culture. Right wing leaders and parties (Germany, France, Italy, Hungary etc) gained momentum and demands were raised to not welcome such people. America which prided itself as the melting pot of the world, witnessed the rise of Trump who was talking about building walls on its border so that immigrants could not enter USA. All kinds of false and fake news were spread against immigrants. Even in this election, Trump has claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating pets, which was an out and out a lie. Trump said in Ohio, “They are eating the dogs, the people that came in, they are eating the cats... they are eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what is happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
In this context Trump’s victory will give legitimacy to all kinds of absurdism. That will be the death of liberal democracy and its universal values. Kamala Harris’s win will herald a new era not only in American politics but also world over which will be great setback to the rise of the right. Let’s see what American voters choose — a liberal future or a regressive past?
The writer is Co-Founder, SatyaHindi.com, and author of Hindu Rashtra. He tweets at @ashutosh83B
