It seems that Trump’s inauguration back in 2017 had much farther-reaching implications than any of us had first predicted: Since Trump became president of the most powerful country in the world, we have seen waves of populist voting shake the Western world—particularly Europe—in waves. Between Le Penn’s close win in France, Boris Johnson’s win, and the entirety of Brexit, there is an undeniable trend in voting for populist parties. As the 2020 voting cycle quickly approaches, it is important to explore what sentiments could have led to such a rise in far-right voting, and why Trump had such a powerful effect on a continent thousands of miles away.
The first and most obvious reason there has been a rise in populist voting is that the most influential country in the world—the U.S.—chose to elect a controversial candidate. What were before considered unacceptable opinions to say aloud became mainstream when the president came to power: Knowing that more than half of the country (at least by electoral college votes) supported the president meant that people no longer had to be ‘closeted’ in their support of more extreme political candidates, causing waves of support for controversial beliefs across the rest of the world. Furthermore, Trump’s reclamation of the word ‘nationalist’ allowed supporters to take one of the greatest criticisms against the political candidate and turn it into a strength (‘nationalism means putting America first’), creating a resurgence of supporters for right-wing nationalistic parties worldwide. Although Trump himself isn’t far-right, his use of traditionally far-right terms like nationalism, as well as his obvious catering to a far-right platform (seen in instances such as when he refused to condemn a particular side during the Charlottesville ‘unite the right’ rally) has left space for other alt-right parties overseas to follow his lead and ‘come out of the closet’ with their polarizing beliefs.
Another reason for the rise in populist voting we are seeing today is due to the pendulum effect. In almost all political trends, a sudden surge in acceptance of one political idea will one day lead to an opposing surge in the rival political idea, seen in movements like #metoo and Black Lives Matter. Movements occurring from the pendulum effect, however, are not always positive and sometimes swing too far in the opposing direction. An example of this is seen in the sudden surge of populist voting today: People are tired of listening to diplomatic politicians, who have a very bad reputation in society, and instead want to be represented by people like them. When Trump then uses Twitter as a presidential platform, tweeting undiplomatic sentiments and unaffected language that anyone can understand, these people feel that they are at last represented by a president who are like the people. The fact that Trump is a businessman and has his own reality tv show perhaps portrays him as the ‘guy next door’ rather than a benefit hungry politician. Another reason for this pendulum effect, specifically in Europe, is because of the recent rise in immigration to Europe. After World War II, Europe attempted to make up for its mistakes by accepting more immigrants and refugees than ever, causing many citizens today to ‘swing back’ against the movement and vote for populist parties. This is not helped by Trump’s rhetoric that immigrants take jobs. Lastly, the pendulum effect can be specifically seen in France: After the Holocaust, in which France willingly sent their Jews to death camps with no prompting required from the Germans, there was huge shame in the French identity for how they surrendered their Jews. Since the Shoah, France has vehemently denied this shameful aspect of our history, jumping onto the allies’ cause at the very last second during the war and erasing attachment to Vichy’s actions. Today, far-right parties in the country are coming out and saying that it is high time people stopped feeling embarrassed by their French identity, the ‘Front National’ going as far as denying the Holocaust ever happened. This push against France’s shame has caused many people to vote for the Front National in an attempt to prove that they are proud of their nationality, rather than just accepting the responsibility for France’s actions while moving on and creating a new sense of national pride.
Lastly, we are seeing a sudden surge in far-right nationalistic voting simply because people are tired of politicians not fulfilling their promises. One of the reasons so many people voted for Trump in 2016 is because he was the first presidential nominee to go so far as to make promises which no other candidate would dare declare so outrightly. ‘Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it’: no matter how strange or ineffective a campaign promise, at least gave a real promise that wasn’t based in vague language and technicalities. This populist method is being used by many far-right parties today, all promising outlandish and frankly impossible things like Brexit to encourage people to vote for them and see real change. Most far-right politicians being voted in do indeed see through their promises as far as possible, whether because they lack understanding that the plan isn’t going to work or simply to appeal to their voters, showing disgruntled civilians that there is at least a change with this new government in place. This method has paved the way for quite a lot of political stunts and gimmicks (see Johnson) but seemed to effectively recruit new members into the party.
As various political cycles approach, it is important for people to make informed and educated decisions about who they are voting for and the viability of their plans, whether these be nominees on the left or right side of the aisle, and to not simply cast a vote based off of the political party each candidate represents, or a vote to rebel against the status quo. It is important to remember that voting is not only a right but a privilege, and that if you haven’t thoroughly researched your nominee’s ideas before casting your ballot, maybe you shouldn’t be voting at all.
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