My life straddles the Atlantic,
one foot in America and the other in Britain and Europe. Because of this, I get
to see politics unfold at close range in each spot. Although on the surface
there seems to be no theme; actually I think there is a disturbing one.
In a recent piece in the New
York Times, David Brooks talked of a widespread “anxiety of impotence.” A large
majority of people feel they are powerless. As Brooks writes: “The Republican establishment thinks the
grass roots have the power but the grass roots think the reverse…The unions
think the corporations have the power but the corporations think the start-ups
do. Regulators think Wall Street has the power but Wall Street thinks the
regulators do.”
This feeling of helplessness is
creating dangerous political trends among the opposition parties, and those
former opposition parties that have now come to power. In America, the
opposition Republican Party is splintering into the “Trump/Cruz” crazies and
the increasingly defensive traditionalists. It is hard to see a reconciliation
happening in the next few months. Similarly in the United Kingdom where the
Labor Party is in opposition, the far left “Corbynistas,” lead by Jeremy
Corbyn; is alienating the party’s more mainstream New Labor “Blairites.” Even
parties in power are having insurrections. Bernie Sanders is sniping from the far
left in the Democratic Party in the United States; Nigel Farage’s far right
UKIP haranguing the Conservatives in Britain.
This “anxiety of impotence” creates a desire for
a “savior,” and there are many firebrands lining up for the job. Their strategies
have one common thread; create a villain. For Trump it is the incompetence of
the political elite, or alternately Muslims. For Cruz it’s Washington insiders.
Bernie blames Wall Street; Corbyn, capitalism. The targets around the world
include many minorities: Blacks, gays, apostates, crusaders, the “West”, or the
“one percent.” Any “other” that taps into the underlying alienation will do. Institutions
are also in the frame: the EU, the UN, or the Supreme Court.
Saviors promise quick solutions
to simple problems. Unfortunately our current challenges are not simple
problems caused by some bogyman; they are a function of displacement by technology,
globalization and poor education. Quick fixes are therefore an illusion, albeit
alluring to a disgruntled populace.
Europe may give us some insight
as to what might be heading our way in America and Britain: Hungary’s Victor
Orban, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Russia’s Vladimir Putin and most recently
Poland’s Jarosław Kaczyński. These
leaders are elected saviors – all very popular and each has told their people who
is the bogyman and that the solutions are simple. These regimes have given rise
to a new term: “illiberal democracy,” coined by Fareed Zakaria in 1997.
Princeton’s Jan-Werner Mueller insightfully challenges this label in a recent
blog on “Project Syndicate.” There is no place for the word “democracy” in the
description of these governments. A more descriptive phase would be “illiberal
authoritarian.” In every case, under the cover of some vague populist rhetoric,
national courts have been packed or muted, the media muzzled and minority
opposition squashed.
In early 1918, Mussolini called
for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean
sweep" to revive the Italian nation. Fascism was born and plagued the
world until after World War II. I am
very worried that our “anxiety of impotence” might usher in some form of
populist neo-Fascism for much of the world. This will not solve our problems,
merely complicate them. And in the process cause untold misery on many a minority - careful, you might be one of them.
