Trumpism is unpopular—globally

We have to seize this moment and run with it

There is at least one good thing happening on Earth right now. Donald Trump, as he takes a wrecking ball to the United States and perhaps to the world economy, is making people across the world rethink their votes for conservative candidates and parties. Australia is the latest example of a right-wing party not only getting whooped by the center-left but completely losing the lead they had at the start of this year. With an exceptionally, and even surprisingly strong showing Australia’s Labor Party both crushed the opposition and sent a message to the world that Trump and his brand of politics are repelling voters right now.

Australia isn’t unique. Canada’s conservatives “lost a remarkable 27-point lead” in the polls a week ago, and lost the national election for the fourth time in a row. In Australia and Canada the leader of the conservative party had modeled himself somewhat on Donald Trump, and both leaders were punished for that decision after the first three months of the second Trump administration.

This isn’t the whole story, of course. In Canada, the conservatives still did better than they’ve done since the party was founded in 2003. There’s still a long way to go to ensure that Australia, Canada, and really the entire West doesn’t fall further and further into fascism. This is the struggle of our time, and while Trump’s greed and incompetence and complete lack of care for the ramifications of his actions is buying some nations more time, and may ultimately help us in the U.S. buy time, we’re going to need a much more thorough reckoning to avoid a long-term fascist surge that topples liberal democracy and plunges us into a new dark ages.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

It’s good to see the pendulum swing. Even in the U.S., folks have rapidly soured on Trump, with most people no longer trusting him on the economy, immigration, or much of anything. Six months after winning the election he’s underwater in every swing state, but without a comprehensive answer to the rise of the far-right this shift is just another go-round on the seesaw oscillating between neoliberalism and fascism. The far-right is rearing its head in more and more countries around the globe, and we must insist on real solutions, on something much better than constantly wobbling on the verge of long-term authoritarian rule.

The fascists have an exit plan from this seesaw; they want to get rid of elections and end liberal democracy. Neoliberals, on the other hand, have no clear strategy. We only get glimpses of something better as we move away from doggedly moderate candidates and parties. The Australian Labor Party campaigned on reducing the cost of living, reducing the cost of housing, pumping money into the public healthcare system and more. It’s hard to know what they’ll follow through with, but their Senate coalition partners will be the Greens, who have already said they plan to use their leverage to pass legislation “including expanding Medicare, free childcare and banning new fossil fuel projects,” according to The Guardian.

These moves can buy us time. Bringing down the cost of living, expanding public healthcare, and presenting a tangible alternative to fascism is vital to staving off far-right parties and keeping them out of power. If this pivot isn’t made (as with the dominant liberal parties in the U.S. and the UK) the fascists will ultimately succeed.

In writing about how neoliberalism always contained the seeds of its own destruction, Grace Blakely recently wrote that, “liberal politicians would do well to learn the right lessons from the current crisis.” Namely, as fascists ascend on false promises of helping ordinary people, we must reckon with the fact that the “rising tide lifts all boats” lie of Reaganism, which was all too readily adopted by neoliberal politicians in bed with oligarchs, has utterly failed us. Blakely writes that an answer to the fascist menace looks in part like “investing in the regions and communities hollowed out by neoliberal globalisation” and “building international cooperation on a foundation of cooperative development, not competitive exploitation.”

Now we’re getting closer to actual solutions, real alternatives to fascism that can outlast this anti-Trump bump. For the fascist base, the appeal is largely hatred, racism, misogyny, and other beliefs that allow people to fleetingly feel superior. But outside this core are millions and millions of people who have spent years and decades hoping for some alternative to the dominant neoliberal structure. So when someone comes along claiming to be an outsider who wants to shake things up, no matter how hollow that might ring to many of us, people jump at the idea of taking down the system that’s left them behind.

The core of that system, of neoliberalism and capitalism, is exploitation. Workers, both at home and abroad, are increasingly exploited as more and more of what we generate is siphoned off by a ruling class whose greed knows no bounds, and who have shaped world governments to enable that greed. This is, ultimately, what has created such fertile ground for fascism. People want someone to blame, and if we don’t lay out that the oligarchs are responsible for the problems working people face, other groups will be scapegoated again and again. And this is one of the countless reasons that neoliberals can’t fight fascism. They will never correctly assign blame to the oligarchs they’re in bed with; it’s on us to make that case.

Photo by Maria Teneva on Unsplash

One of the clearest examples of the fight between neoliberalism and a real alternative is unfolding in New York City right now. On the one hand you have Andrew Cuomo, boosted by universal name recognition despite his massive scandals. On the other is Zohran Mamdani, campaigning on freezing the rent and real community safety and making New York City more affordable. While Cuomo uses AI to write crappy housing proposals and generally promises more of the same, Zohran is articulating an alternative to the neoliberal status quo that’s has made life difficult and unaffordable for people in New York and across the world. The lines are drawn, and whatever the exact result of the NYC mayoral primary next month, we all benefit from seeing such a clear contrast.

And yet we must go still further. As Rosa Luxemburg said over a century ago, we stand at a crossroads facing the choice of either a “transition to Socialism or regression into Barbarism.” She wrote the pamphlet with those words in 1916 Germany, and soon after the country devolved into barbarism. In the absence of a powerful alternative, opposed primarily by an appeasing liberalism, we all know what happened next. And we know that we now stand on a similar precipice. Trump may inadvertently be buying the world time, but if we don’t seize this moment, seize the backlash to his destructiveness, we can expect more barbarism to follow.

The lesson of the past decade has been that we are not exempt. The murderous flourishing of fascism in Europe nearly a hundred years ago was not a unique and isolated event. It was connected to the history of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. It had direct ties to Europe’s atrocities in the Americas, in Africa, and in Asia. Today we live in the stream of that same history. Trump is not an isolated phenomenon, he is the product of a deeply sick society, one built on exploitation and oppression and greed. And if we don't comprehensively dismantle the sickness of capitalism and replace it with worker power, if we don't radically transform society, any victories will be rolled back by oligarchs, just like we’re seeing at this very moment.

The system of global capitalism and neoliberalism has led fascism to rear its ugly head around the globe, and while every victory against this menace should be celebrated we don’t have the luxury of refusing to seize these moments, of refusing to pick up the momentum that is building against Trumpism. We must grab it, run with it, and understand that we face the ultimate question of comprehensively ending greed and exploitation or falling into a pit of barbarity and darkness. The choice is ours, and the time is now.