Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler were both populist leaders. Populism has negative connotations since it can lead towards authoritative leadership and extremism in politics. At its core however, populism is simply the support for the ordinary person who feels disregarded by the social and political elites. It’s seen a sharp rise around the world over the last 5 years or so. This rise of populism is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a sign that the established way of doing things is not working for a large segment of people.
Since WW2 and especially after the Cold War, world politics has been pushing towards more globalization. This period of globalization and globalist politics has seen one of the longest periods of relative peace and prosperity across the world. It’s been a very successful political ideology, but we’re now experiencing some of the drawbacks from fully embracing it. The increases of immigration, free trade, and progressive values that are the backbone to globalism has undermined the local identities and priorities of many people. It has divided nations into broadly speaking the urban global elites and rural local underclass. To be perfectly clear, globalization is a good thing, but too much of it too quickly can cause unnecessary strain on the local priorities.
Under the belief that moving relentlessly towards more globalization, local blue collar workers have seen their jobs move overseas at an unprecedented rate. A rate far higher than those populations of workers can adapt to and change career paths. There has also been an influx of low skill immigrants that drive prices of cheap labor down due to an oversupply of workers. Finally, social values have undergone radical transformations recently under global elites, further disenfranchising the local underclass from the rest of the world. They don’t identify with their nations anymore, and they don’t see a prosperous future anywhere on the horizon if this continues. Remember, this is a large portion of the population in a number of nations that are feeling this way.
Most of the global elites around the world blamed racism, bigotry, and plain stupidity for the rise of Donald Trump, Brexit, and other populist movements. But to take this approach to understanding the situation is ignorant to the real concerns of millions of people.
I’m of course painting a very imprecise and broad image here since looking at the details will lose perspective of the big picture issue. Populism is on the rise on both the left and right and should not be ignored. The concerns that have led to their rise must be addressed and taken seriously to avoid further extremism and conflict.
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