There is an assumption, probably particularly among those who cover the news and those who read it, that Donald Trump’s legal travails are common knowledge. We talk about things like the potential effects of a Trump conviction on the 2024 presidential election with the assumption that this would be an event that rose to the nation’s consciousness, triggering a response from both his supporters and detractors.
But this is a sort of vanity: Just because it is interesting to us certainly doesn’t mean it is interesting to others. Polling released by CNN on Thursday shows that only a quarter of voters seek out news about the campaign; a third pay little to no attention at all.
As it turns out, even major developments often fly under the average American’s radar. New polling conducted by YouGov shows that only a bit over half of the country on average is aware of the various legal challenges Trump faces. And among those Republicans on whose political support he depends? Consistently, only a minority say they are aware of his lawsuits and charges.
Yes, of course, there are many reasons why people vote for these parties. However, I very much doubt whether these parties actually offer any viable solutions or whether their popularity is due to proposals for actual solutions - imo they just make it seem that way. Just one example: the AfD does not pursue a social economic policy; quite the opposite. Nevertheless, they pretend to be on the side of the little guy by engaging in classic fascist agitation against foreigners who are supposedly taking jobs away from Germans and are therefore also supposedly to blame for the dire economic situation of many Germans. This is of course not only factually wrong, but is even aimed at a counterproductive, namely very restrictive immigration policy. It is nothing more than propaganda designed to attract voters in economically precarious circumstances, although this demographic group would be the one to suffer most from the AfD’s economic policy if this party ever forms a government (basically a 1-to-1 copy of the Trumpists’ strategy). Furthermore, the German economy does actually urgently need foreign workers due to demographics - and by no means only highly qualified ones. I have at least some hope that the protests currently taking place across Germany can help people understand what parties like the AfD actually stand for and thus realize that they are being duped. For those conservatives who are determined to hold on to their traditional values, I hope that the protests will make them realize that they are voting for fascists and perhaps remember what happened in 1933 when the fascists took power in Germany. For the more rational thinking folk, the protests bring a little hope because people can reassure themselves in real life that there are actually many others who neither tolerate fascism nor want this hateful political discourse that just plays into the hands of AfD and others - with all their enemy stereotypes, backwards thinking and simplistic explanations. It at least gives me a little hope when I see, as I did today, that 30,000 people took to the streets in my home town of 250,000 inhabitants to demonstrate against fascism and for an open, tolerant democracy. This might not stop the AfD, but I’d say if I can possibly contribute a bit to weaken the popularity of this fascist party, it’s well worth a few hours of my time.
You’re right about everything but what I’m saying is that there’s something hidden a bit deeper behind all this. A lot of people don’t support AfD, VOX of Konfederacja because they believe in their economic and anti-immigration policies. They are drawn to them because of they anti-progressive stances and once ‘converted’ they accept the other ideas. The main thing is that the further you take progressive policies the more people will start disagreeing with them and pushing back. And there’s really no good solution here. We either give more rights to women and minorities and face pushback from the right or limit those policies and face pushback from the left. It’s a kind of ‘two steps forward one step back’ situation where we took steps forward recently and I think we just have to be prepared for the step back.
Yes, that is certainly true. I just don’t have an answer as to how this attitude can be dealt with reasonably in a democracy. Looking at history, I don’t think there is a better system than democracy (you can of course be lucky and get a “good autocrat” of whatever couleur - but that was possible even in the days of monarchy and obviously never really worked). I realize of course that there will always be the backward-looking people. Brexit is a good example, I think (“we need to be the empire ruling the world again” - was isolationism the way to go? Doesn’t seem so to me). After all, this desire for long-gone greatness has little to do with the reality of a globalized world. This attitude becomes even more problematic when you think about the most pressing problems facing humanity. Climate change. There can be no endless growth with limited resources. I think this is a fact that people just have to deal with. Musk won’t be able to solve this problem with a new habitat on Mars and our promises to cut emissions seem to me nothing more than publicity promises. In short, I’ve come to the conclusion that this unworldly, backward-looking thinking is simply unacceptable. Nevertheless, I try to keep the peace by more or less pretending to understand the concerns of those backward-looking people. There’s not much more I can do, I’m afraid. All the less so when these people try to reverse civilizational achievements such as equal rights for women. I really can’t bring myself to have any sympathy for that. So yea, you are of course absolutely right: there is really no solution to this. But im affraid that there still has to be a solution as soon as possible.