Why do right-wing populists succeed?

[Pickman's model]

I think I just did.

Not really. You said their impact on British politics can't be denied. I take it then you feel that an impact that can't be denied is success. Which makes kwasi karteng the most successful chancellor for many years. Does that look like success to you?

 

[Cloo]

People say it's because they offer easy targets and solutions for people to take their frustrations out on but why does "it's the immigrants" work better than "it's the bankers" for example? Do Farage, Trump and co succeed because of media backing or is there something deeper at work that makes it easy for working class people to believe those who clearly don't have their interests at heart?

I think it's a lot to do with John Steinbeck's idea about people considering themselves 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires' - they want to side with the powerful, because maybe they'll get the power too, maybe then they'll be let in the club when its 'their turn' after all their hard work. They don't want to associate themselves with people they've been told are lazy, not working hard enough, not striving. They've swallowed the line that the wealthy are better, work harder, they deserve it and you might get it too if you 'work harder'

 

[InArduisFouette]

Hmm. I never meant to be compared to Blair there.

I'm not saying abandon class politics, AT ALL. I'm saying there's a way of explaining why Sir Richard Ponsonby-Smythe isn't like you, Kevin. My sister hates the ruling class with a vengeance but has never read Marx in her life. It is possible to explain Left politics without going into abstract theorizing or deep academic analysis. And that, surely, is how populism must be built. Rather than alienating half your target base by blaming them for becoming non-working class because they fell for Thatcher's property owning schtick.

I think you 've missed the point

Blair understood that the party could not win on traditional labour voters alone, therefore must appeal to 'mondeo man' as well

the Current Self Servative shower did that appeal with their taking back control schtick and calling everything which remain said was likely to happen and thus far a big chunk of them either have happend or haven;t happened solely becasue the Selfservatives are failing to 'protect our borders' and ' take back control' thus demonstrating the hollowness of that call from Leave

 

[agricola]

"Why do people who enjoy overwhelming advantages in funding, media support and work in a system that is largely rigged in their favour keep doing so well?"

 

[Dogsauce]

Grievance politics, innit. Convincing people they are the victims, they are the losers in any attempt to create equality for others. A message that has been pushed for at least three decades because it works on enough people.

Maybe the ‘left’ needs to push a similar message about how people are losing out (high rents, loss of amenities etc), but they don’t have control of the channels to amplify this, and seem to be tied up countering culture war shit the right is pushing, letting the right dictate the battles they fight.

 

[nightowl]

I wonder if part of it is that many of them secretly despise the working class and are therefore more likely to be manipulative and economical with facts to suit their agenda, thereby giving themselves an advantage in the propaganda stakes. Not saying that every politician on the left is a saint but the likes of Farage and co are clearly pushing a bosses' agenda by conning ordinary people into believing shit that's clearly against their interests.

 

[redsquirrel]

clearly pushing a bosses' agenda by conning ordinary people into believing shit that's clearly against their interests.

Depending on your political views that equally applies to other ideologies - socialists would say liberalism is based on persuading workers of a political view against their interests.

WRT to the question in the OP, succeed in respect/contrast to what?

 

[nightowl]

Don't want to sidetrack into what is/isn't success or individual politicians but it's undeniable that the likes of Farage helped push Brexit and the so-called 'small boats' issue into headline topics. People can laugh at his failures standing for Parliament all they want but he's had a huge impact on British politics.

 

[redsquirrel]

Even back in 1971 there was a very significant minority of voters that were opposed to the UK being part of the EU. To see Farage as 'conning people' into wanting to leave is to write those voters, and the material conditions that affect all voters, out of picture.

Right wing populism has clearly had some success in both electoral and influence terms, but even in the US it is supported by only a (significant) minority of the electorate.

 

[nightowl]

I think it's a lot to do with John Steinbeck's idea about people considering themselves 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires' - they want to side with the powerful, because maybe they'll get the power too, maybe then they'll be let in the club when its 'their turn' after all their hard work. They don't want to associate themselves with people they've been told are lazy, not working hard enough, not striving. They've swallowed the line that the wealthy are better, work harder, they deserve it and you might get it too if you 'work harder'

I get the impression there's an awful lot of that in American politics especially with the national 'aspirational' outlook. It's basically telling people not to cut off a path that 99.9% of them will never tread anyway.

 

[nightowl]

Right wing populism has clearly had some success in both electoral and influence terms, but even in the US it is supported by only a (significant) minority of the electorate.

It got Trump into the White House.

 

[redsquirrel]

Yes, on a minority of the vote, only 31% of the electorate, and an even lower % of the population.

I'm not arguing that right-wing populism is not a threat, I think it is, but its success needs to be placed in context. Populism (of all shades) still remains a minority political affiliation. And if one wants to understand why populism is on an upswing at the present time then its relationship with liberalism needs to be considered.

There has been discussion of a several books on populism here

 

[Idaho]

No one has mentioned the behavioural responses of loss aversion and out group hostility. These are very basic human drives and seem to be easy to hijack in modern politics: You are at risk. This person is your only hope. The rest will take your stuff away.

 

[Smangus]

People say it's because they offer easy targets and solutions for people to take their frustrations out on but why does "it's the immigrants" work better than "it's the bankers" for example? Do Farage, Trump and co succeed because of media backing or is there something deeper at work that makes it easy for working class people to believe those who clearly don't have their interests at heart?

Cognitive dissonance due to refusal to acknowledge a policy failure. Thus it's not a bad or poorly implemented policy - it has to be somebody's fault. Cue search for scapegoats, immigrants, wokness, the blob etc.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

In the recent past… algorithms.
In the very near future… AI generated fake footage.

 

[nightowl]

In the recent past… algorithms.
In the very near future… AI generated fake footage.

If we think fake news is scary now it's only going to get worse