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Biden will win this, but there are sobering lessons for the opponents of national populism. Thread.
1/ National populist candidates have appeal across different countries, and ethnic groups. They’re dangerous, and they’re not going away.
2/ They appeal to their voters in a genuine way, not only because of propaganda and disinformation. Voting for these candidates meets a need, and isn’t because people have been fooled.
3/ A proportion of their supporters are what we might call anti-leftists: they find the left wing view of the world naive, preachy, smug and so on.
4/ Exhibit A is the Floridian Cuban-Americans and Venezuelan-Americans. AOC and her ilk scare them.
5/ These people need a constitutional conservative, centre-right force to vote for.
6/ A “progressive” movement (incidentally a label conservatives hate because it excludes them) can’t achieve lasting change without persuading the centre-right.
7/ But that needs them to accept the legitimacy of centre-right politics. Without it, national populists will keep winning votes, paralyse, or even destroy constitutional democracy.
ENDS.
ENDS.
PS: This doesn’t mean fighting the populists on their territory, or implementing their policies for them. The idea is to find different ways to relate to their voters.
