The Hard Right is Coming To a Theatre Near You!
The Hard Right is Coming To a Theatre Near You!
An American Referendum or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Voting Booth or Keanu, Keanu, Where Are You?
Set the Scene:
A dystopian street view. Grey skies, garbage blowing down a dirty city street. Hungry looking citizens dressed in raggedly clothes move hurriedly along. The street is dangerous. A group with protest signs for Gaza, Ukraine, Progressives, Communists, Corbyn, Trans kids, Trees march in the middle of the once graceful boulevard.
There's nothing particularly original about the scene being set. I'm sure you can find scenes like this in movies from the beginnings of film. From Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" to Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" and Woody Allen's "Sleeper" to the modern day's "Hunger Games". But this time those scenes aren't from the minds of cranky auteur directors. No, these scenes are coming straight to us courtesy of our very own self made politicians and really it was only a matter of time before ambitious politicians harnessed the power of cinema's imagery for themselves. They don't have to be original just loud and insistent.
And so, here we are face to face, head to head, fist to fist with the populist parties view of a typical American street. Actually any street in any city in any "western democracy". The hordes are played by immigrants, the unhoused, 'communists', 'progressives', even our well meaning but duped neighbours, etc. You get it. The antagonists are anyone in the political establishment. Anyone in power. Left, Right, Centre, the politics don't matter. What matters is that they can be accused of carrying the water for an established deep state, nefarious power brokers and the elite.
Hello George Soros. Rupert Murdoch? Yes even Rupert Murdoch, the dark prince himself when it serves our protagonists purpose. And who are our protagonists? Ah well we have a veritable Suicide Squad complement of heros. Orban, Meloni, Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, Alice Weidel, Nigel Farage and the 800 lb gorilla - Donald Trump.
So what's the play book? How do our teams get power? Build a constituency in the old political terminology. Well as I see it they seem to have two distinct methodologies. There's the old fashioned style. An Orban, Meloni, Le Pen method. Build your own bespoke party. As Le Pen can attest this method can be a slow slog to power. (Although Macron might take issue with that). You can be aided by a certain kind of electoral system. Italy's is perfectly amenable to building a new party and in a few years gaining power a la Meloni.
Orban has been able to pass new electoral rules and pre-election giveaways to give himself an enduring margin of victory in every Hungarian election since he first came to power. In other words he rigged the game. Farage set out to be a power broker rather then the power itself. Building a strong base that he controls and can direct to support the conservatives as in Britain's 2019 blowout election victory under Johnson or he can contest his erstwhile allies and devastate? their electoral prospects. (We'll see how it turns out soon).
And Trump. Well, Trump, Lets call him the accidental leader. The bombastic, rude, narcisistic showman won his first term against all odds. A natural hard right strongman he really had no plan for his first term. He wasn't supposed to win. It was just supposed to be great publicity for his brand. But he won. And as time passed there seemed to be only one rule to follow. Blind allegiance to his dictats. There were no specific policy goals other then tax relief and owning the libs, oh and making good on a few favours for money like moving the Israeli embassy for Miriam Adelson and the $90 million she donated to support his campaign. Or nominating the right justices in return for evangelical and federalist society support etc. In fact many of his adherents who chose him as their avatar consider his first term a failure. A lost four year opportunity.
His 2020 election campaign was an abject failure. He lost states like Georgia and Arizona that he'd won last time. He ran on a platform of No Platform. In other words, elect me and trust me to do whatever.... funnily enough that lost the popular vote - hugely. But America's electoral system meant he came within a whisker of winning the election. What has he done for his Maga movement since? Well like a worm in Robert Kennedy Jr's head (google it), he has turned the Republican party into Maga. True blue republicans like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney have been kicked to the curb. The GOP is now Maga in a Republican suit.
Farage has caught on. As noted in the New York Times: “The establishment are terrified, the Conservatives are terrified,” Mr. Farage declared gleefully, referring to the governing party, which trails badly in opinion polls ahead of the July 4 election. Britain was “a broken nation,” he added, in a speech attacking targets ranging from asylum seekers to the BBC. Last election he helped the Tories to a resounding victory by not running any candidates. This time his plan is rather different. He wants to destroy the Tories by poaching much of their vote, then replace — or take over — the party’s remnants. Early in the campaign, after a journalist asked if he wanted to merge Reform with the Conservatives, he replied: “More like a takeover, dear boy.”
And if these lovely actors succeed on the political stage what can we look forward to achieving in the future? Well - first of course Trump is promising to invoke the Insurrection Act and use the US military to build deportation camps and round up the 12 million or so illegal immigrants in the US. Then of course he will break tradition and use the Justice Department to go after anyone he wants. As he says loudly he is our retribution. He has loudly proclaimed a desire to go after the media he doesn't like. It goes on. Oh and quietly he mentions at times 8 more years not 4 so we can look for a change to presidential term limits??? Why not? He has had Orban (his fellow successful leader) over to Mar-a-Lago several times for dinner and drinks. I doubt their talking about how lovely Hungary is this time of year!
Simply the West can say goodbye to the multi racial pluralistic egalitarian society we've been building since WWII. Huh, you say. I can't even pronounce that. Yeah well no biggie. Maga have a plan. Its a 900 page hard right fever dream called Project 2025 and it's being serialised, translated and delivered to the rest of the world's hard right cohort.
It's a governing method and a plan to adapt to the specifics of your individual country. Our hard right leaders currently in power are already working it. Italy's Meloni is successfully changing Italy already and in far right circles she's considered the palatable consumer friendly version. Orban comes off as a heavy on the world stage but in private he's a strategist and to speak to the hard core faithful - but Meloni is the insta friendly fascist.
The main points of Project 2025 plans for government are:
1. Structural change - Take out 50,000 or so of the Civil Service and replace them with Maga faithful.
2. Dismantle - Take out pesky departments and agencies like the Dept. of Education or Dept. of the Environment.
3. Subvert and weaponize - Turn agency functions to surveillance and control. i.e. the CDC, the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention will become abortion monitors. Dept of Justice will go after enemies of the State and since Trump is the State - well you get it. Retribution is on the menu.
If Trump's bargain for power in 2016 was around taxes, Israel, and abortion last time. This time the bargain is much bigger. The Unitary Executive Theory Project 2025 groups are pushing and promising dictatorial-like powers and even additional presidential terms. Trump has stripped out any but the most faithful Maga supporters from any levers of power and the rest of the Republican party is slavish in their devotion to him. There are no bars. Imagine in two weeks a routed Tory party and a resurgent Farage. And then look in the distance in a few months time.....
An elderly man stands at a podium. American flags fly around him. The capitol dome is in view in a blue sky with a dark cloud just at the horizon. He's speaking to a huge crowd. We can't make out his face yet. But we see some red hats in the outer crowd.
- End scene -
End world?
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