-Russia
-Great Britain
-America
-Israel
-Sweden
-Italy
-Brazil
-Hungary
That's not all the countries in the world, nor all the democracies but it represents the biggest democracies excluding India and Germany of India, particularly if you add France as maybe a wanna be associate member of the club of nascent or worse autocracies in varying states of being. It does not include the rest of the European Union, Canada, or Australia.
Those are eight completely different countries with different cultures, different political histories and different experiences with democracy which, by any objective measure have been extremely successful. None has ever been stronger, more secure, or more prosperous. It is in these countries that one sees most clearly the rise of right-wing anti-democracy.
There is ideological cross-fertilization. The American right has a love affair with Vladimir Putin; UKIP leader Nigel
Farage campaigned with Trump in 2016; Viktor Orban is a rock star to the
American right, having appeared at CPAC gatherings. Steve Bannon campaigned with Italian right-wing strongwoman Giorgia Meloni. Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Lauren Boebert cheered her election on the floor of the House of Representatives.
"Ideological cross-fertilization": What is the ideology that is being cross-fertilized? It is a thin soup of strongmen and anti-democratic, religious nationalism. That's it. They rail against vagueries: "globalists," "elites." They see something in one another that no one else sees; they hear dog whistles none else hear.
But thin and vague as it is it is real and it is global and there is no counter-movement of countries. How many authoritarian/dictatorial countries want to go truly democratic? Ukraine is the only one that comes to mind.
Zillions of key strokes have been spent, including here, trying to grasp the kernel of Donald Trump's appeal. Many, including the undersigned, can see, in retrospect the "authoritarian personality" identified in the 1950's in the U.S.; we can trace the germ if we are inclined to the long view back to Kevin Phillips' Southern Strategy in the late 1960's; or to Charles Lindbergh and America First in 1941, or to Andrew Jackson's presidency in the 1830's. But history can be bunk. Trumpism started in 2015. It took the U.S. completely by surprise. But it was not the first. Britain, with Brexit, that was the first. Very close in time to Trump's election and recognized, and predicted, by him as a kindred spirit that would succeed. But even adding the English-speaking cousins together has not made that kernel easier to grasp. It is still like trying to hold that thin soup of commonality with your hands. Expanding the sample to the above-listed countries only deepens the confusion and turns the soup into mercury: there, difficult to identify, impossible to pin down, but no doubt it is there.
The consolidation of power continues in countries across the world. In four days Israel will hold its fifth election in four years. A religious nationalist, extreme right-wing man and party--Jewish Power--is set to be the linchpin of a new government headed once again by a recycled, used up, right-wing strongman, Benjamin Netanyahu. A week from then, on November 8, the U.S. will hold its biennial elections for the national legislature. In the color scheme of America it will be a red wave that will deliver both chambers to the anti-democrats in thrall to Trump. The American red wave will be channeled by threats, intimidation and violence and will harden into a cement that will permanently hem Democrats further away from political power. The red cement will also be the walk way for Trump or a Trump follower to reclaim the presidency in 2024. Orban will no doubt celebrate, as will Ben-Givir in Israel; Bannon too, as he prepares to serve his jail sentence; Putin is looking on with stars in his eyes; Jair Bolsonaro will see soul-mates in the new Republican majority.
I confess that I do not know why this has happened, why it has happened now, and why it has happened in so many prominent democratic countries.
