Category Archives: Populism

Oliver Dowdens speech to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, DC on 14 February, in which he denounced the painful woke psychodrama that is sweeping the West, has attracted plenty of attention, not all of it positive.

The Conservative Party chairman argued that woke ideology is everywhere. This dangerous form of decadence threatens to sap our societies of their own self-confidence. He linked the rise of the doctrine of woke with the international situation, arguing that just when our attention should be focused on external foes, we seem to have entered this period of extreme introspection and self-criticism as the enemies of the West are finding fresh confidence in their eternal battle against liberty.

As a speech it is revealing and thought-provoking, not wholly wrong but fundamentally misguided.

It is revealing in that it was a speech Oliver Dowden wanted to make. Dowden entered parliament in 2015 having been David Camerons deputy chief of staff. He represents the constituency next door but one to my former seat, and I have always found him to be intelligent, politically astute and likeable. He is also ambitious.

In 2019 he saw which way the Conservative Party was going and decided to embrace it. This weeks speech flows from that choice.

As culture secretary he won the respect of officials as an effective and thoughtful minister but also carved out an unlikely role as a culture warrior. He was unfortunate not to have been promoted to education secretary and found himself to his disappointment made party chairman.

[see also: Putin has spotted our weakness political correctness]

With the imminent prospect of a further reshuffle (one way or another), he obviously thought now was a good time to emphasise his credentials as a foe of the left and a foreign policy hawk (plus, for good measure, an advocate of low taxes and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher). Dowden will have a good feel for what appeals to Conservative MPs and members, and concluded that his speech fitted the bill.

Although this will not be the view of every New Statesman reader, there is an issue with cancel culture and an intolerance of views outside rather limited parameters. I think Dowden overstates the problem, and there is, I think, less of a threat to freedom of speech in the UK than in the US (as chronicled by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in The Coddling of the American Mind). But the concern is legitimate.

There is also a strand of thinking on the far left that automatically views the West as the villains of the piece. True to form, Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott have blamed Nato for the tensions relating to Russia and Ukraine. It is perfectly reasonable for a Conservative politician to attack this nonsense.

Dowden also raises the importance of countries in the West, at a time of geopolitical turbulence, being self-confident, united and showcasing the vitality of our values. Again, particularly in the context of Russian threats to an independent, sovereign nation, he raises important questions to which we should give more thought.

It is at this point, however, that we must see his argument as misguided and, at times, ridiculous.

First, if we want to be more united, let us not overstate the cancel culture issue. Dowden gives the impression that all political parties other than the Conservatives are unpatriotic and that Britains history is at risk of being expunged. Both points are divisive and wrong. If we are truly self-confident, there are debates to be had about our past.We were not always the villains, but we were not always the heroes either. We should be able to handle this discussion without descending, as Dowden warned, into extreme introspection and self-criticism and demoralisation and despair.

Second, the link between wokery and our ability to stand up to authoritarian regimes elsewhere is, to put it mildly, tenuous. The argument does not work: it lacks a sense of proportion, and has rightly been ridiculed.

Third, if one is making an argument about how we should be confident in our Western values as we confront authoritarian regimes, the biggest problem is not the doctrine of woke.

The Heritage Foundation, which hosted the Dowden event, has close links to the US Republican Party, a party in which it would be a career-jeopardising move to condemn the attempted overthrow of a legitimate presidential election. That, I would have thought, is a more salient threat to our values of democracy and freedom. Incidentally, it was a Republican president, Donald Trump, who pondered US withdrawal from Nato. He may yet still pursue that project if he wins back the presidency in 2024.

Within Europe, it is right-wing populist governments that are undermining the rule of law and, in the case of Hungary, supporting Vladimir Putin.

Closer to home, the government in which Dowden serves has attempted to illegally suspend parliament and threatened to break international law. Brexit was always a huge geopolitical error that weakened the West, but the UK government is implementing it in a way that creates additional tensions with our closest allies. It is also a government that appears to think the Prime Minister is above the law.

We should ask ourselves how Western societies can become less divided, more self-confident and better exemplars of liberal democratic values. The answer is not to obsess about wokery, but to confront populism and nationalism, make the case for constructive Western alliances, and respect the rule of law.

[see also: Why liberalism is in crisis]

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Right-wing populism is a bigger threat to the West than woke ideology - The New Statesman

48:35Emergency action in Ottawa

The federal government took the historic step this week of invoking the Emergencies Act a never-before-used piece of legislation giving authorities additional powers to put an end to protests in Ottawa and across the country. But was the deployment of the act necessary, and how did law enforcement let things get this far?

Justice Minister David Lametti sits down with host Chris Hall to discuss his government's decision. Then, Sen.Vern White a former Ottawa police chief and RCMP officer offers his reaction to the use of the Emergencies Act and decisions made by authorities on the ground leading up to this weekend.

Plus: former NDP MP Svend Robinson speaks out against that party's support of the Emergencies Act and reflects on the debate that surrounded the original legislation more than 30 years ago.

27:45Act in case of emergencies

Across Ottawa, the Canadian flag has been seen flying from trucks and wrapped around determined protesters. Some city residents say they now feel angry or afraid when they see the iconic red-and-white symbol on the streets of the capital.

In a special report, The House speaks with Forrest Pass, a vexillologist and curator with Library and Archives Canada, historian Richard Nimijean, Indigenous artist Lou-ann Neel, NDP MPP Joel Harden and others about how the Ottawa protests have changed the meaning of our national symbol for some.

7:49The meaning of the flag

Is this the start of Trump-style populism in Canada? Despite the "Trump 2024" and "Make Canada Great Again" flags that have been on display in Ottawa, Paul Summerville and Eric Protzer say the conditions are not right for a strong populist movement in Canada.

Their new book, Reclaiming Populism, argues the key indicators for the emergence of a country-changing populist movement such as Trumpism in America or Brexit in the U.K. do not exist in Canada. Chris Hall talks to the authors about what makes Canada different and whether that could change.

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CBC Radio's The House: Emergency action in Ottawa - CBC.ca

Citation From the February 16, 2022 edition of Real America's Voice'sWar Room: Pandemic

STEVE BANNON (HOST): We've got to keep our shoulder to the wheel because we just don't want a tiny victory, we want to shatter the Democratic Party. See right there? Oh, you know, Trump [INAUDIBLE], oh no, he's a racist, no, no, no, the America [INAUDIBLE] -- this is called populism. The Democrats are not a populist party. They're a party of elites that have somehow convinced working-class people and the working poor, the proletariat to just have the crumbs off the table, and they continue to bribe them with the crumbs off the table.

That's all shattering. From the Rio Grande valley to south Texas to the great heartland of this country. Actually, in San Francisco, the recalling -- we've got a lot to get to -- they're recalling school boards. Remember, hyper-locality, the precinct strategy, the school board strategy, the election official strategy. Hyper, hyper, hyper-locality. We're taking this back one village at a time. A populist revolt.

The rest is here:

Steve Bannon touts "hyper-locality" focused activism as a means to foment a "populist revolt" - Media Matters for America

The American poet Mary Oliver, an astute guide to the business of living, has said that to pay attention is the endless and proper work of humankind.

In Canada, the last month has suggested we havent made too good a job of it startled as we are by events that, to those who have been paying heed and sounding alarms, have been a long time coming.

Of the many aspects of the siege of Ottawa that will need to be investigated once order is restored, the policing and governance failures key among them, is how Canadians and Canadian leaders paid so little notice to discontent and alarming attitudes that had been building for years.

The furies driving the occupation of the nations capital and border crossings in Ontario and Alberta have basically been hiding in plain sight seldom acknowledged, rarely addressed,

In recent years, a variety of experts and analysts, surveys and studies have identified the weakening commitment of Canadians to democracy and its institutions.

In 2019, for example, the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University published a report on the state of democracy and the appeal of populism.

To revisit it now is, in some senses, to see the present situation foretold.

At the time, the study found that almost 60 per cent of those surveyed believed Canada was democratically governed, but only 10 per cent held that sentiment strongly.

Forty-four per cent did not believe that voting gave them a say in how government runs things. Fifty-six per cent said they could not influence government. Sixty-eight per cent believed officials dont care what ordinary Canadians think and 61 per cent believed government ignores their interests in favour of the establishment.

The finding suggested a lukewarm embrace of democracy and the appeal of populism was apparent.

Eighty per cent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate if he or she stood up for the common people against the elite.

A full third said that attacking the media would be a motivator for them to vote for a candidate.

Undercurrents of xenophobia and racism were also identified.

A full third do believe that those who were born elsewhere and became citizens should have less say in how the country is governed, the report found.

Those most likely to believe Canada embodies democratic principles were those who lived in British Columbia, urban and suburban communities, had more education, and were more financially secure.

Those most likely to say Canadian-born citizens should have a greater say than those born outside the country lived in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Quebec or Atlantic Canada, had less formal education and were struggling financially.

The key takeaways, the centre said, was Canadians dissatisfaction with the way their democracy is working, and a less than full embrace of representative democracy as the best way to govern their country.

The appeal of populism is rooted in the views that government ignores the interests of ordinary Canadians, it said.

Four years ago, pollster Nick Nanos published a book called The Age of Voter Rage, which in its subtitle spoke of the tyranny of small numbers.

Nanos wrote that creeping anti-establishment rage was on the move and making gains.

It has had many manifestations, from the Buffalo Declaration in Western Canada, to the musings by Saskatchewans premier about his provinces potential status as a nation, to the noise of the Peoples Party of Canada in the last two federal elections.

It is founded on a feeling that institutions and elites have failed citizens, that younger and future generations will have a lower standard of living than their elders.

Its fueled by the consequences of globalization and automation, by technology and propaganda and political opportunism.

It is here to stay unless the fundamentals in democracies are recalibrated, Nanos wrote.

The fundamentals being that more citizens need to feel that they have a chance for a better life and that governments are opportunity enablers.

What can no longer be denied or evaded is the recognition that a significant minority in the country are madder than hell and disinclined to take it anymore.

The virulent rage suggests a fundamental diagnosis of disconnectedness, disaffectedness and economic pessimism, Nanos wrote.

The job of finding tangible ways to restore faith in the electoral process, in government, in its leaders and in the future can no longer be ducked or evaded.

Say this for the occupiers: If nothing else, they got the countrys attention.

Whether any good will come of that remains to be seen.

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The rage fuelling blockades and protests has been hiding in plain sight - Toronto Star

Freedom Convoy, Emerson, Canada, 1/29/2022 Darryl Barton / Shutterstock

Although fringe parties are generally not considered very relevant,they nevertheless mirror some of the dominant social or economic concerns of their times. One such fringe party that has risen to recent prominence on the Canadian political scene particularly in the wake of itssupportfor the anti-vaccineFreedom Convoytruck protest yet remains otherwise neglected by academics and the international media is the Peoples Party of Canada (PPC). Formed in 2018 by Maxime Bernier, the PPC seeks to defend so-called real conservative ideas on the basis that the Conservative Party has become too moderate.

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Indeed, as the Canadian truck protests spread across the globe, the PPC is of particular relevance given that Bernier has been quick to visit the protesters and become a vocal defender of their actions, calling upon Canadians to defend theirlibert. Nevertheless, the PPC is also of interest for another reason, namely its detrimental impact in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections upon Canadas more moderate/center-right Conservative Party.

Consequently, two questions stand out from the growing significance of the PPC that have implications for fringe parties in general. First, could these parties ever evolve into mainstream political parties? Second, could they, as the Canada Guide suggests,spoil races in very close elections by pulling votes away from other mainstream parties?

Although there are currently five major political parties represented in the current Canadian House of Commons the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Bloc Qubcois, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party of Canada at the time of the 2021 election there were some 17 eligible federal political partiesregistered. These 17 are often referred to as fringe parties because they have not secured electoral success, their party membership is small, they often only promote a single issue, and their supporters tend to be few and far between.

They can also be widely divergent. Some, such as theCommunist Party of Canada,are of a leftist political persuasion and have been in existence for a century. Others, such as theCanadian Nationalist Party, have only been in existence for a short while and are of an extreme-right predisposition.

Nevertheless, labels such as fringe are open to debate. Indeed, the Green Party, for example, is theoretically the nations fifth major party. Yet at its height, it hasonly ever secured three seats in the Canadian Parliament in 2019 with 6.5% of the popularvote. Its parliamentary representation dropped to two seats in the 2021 election, with 2.3% of the national vote. In this context, it is not surprising that there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a fringe party.

In Canadian politics, it seems that success at the ballot box appears to be the nebulous cut-off point for differentiating between fringe and mainstream parties. The example of the Green Party is again illustrative of this, as it went from being a fringe party to being a major one. Yet the 2.3% that the Greens received in 2021 was less than the nearly 5% the PPC won that same year. The fact that a so-called major party received a smaller share of the vote than an ostensible fringe party testifies to the problematic nature of the term fringe. Furthermore, it implies that the PPC could morph into a mainstream political force.

However, it is the second question relating to pulling votes from mainstream parties that presents thecruxof this cautionary tale. Following the creation of the Reform Party of Canada in 1987, some had argued that it had split the anti-Liberal vote on the moderate conservative right. The same outcome is true in Britain, where there existed a widespread willingness among current Conservative Party members in Britain to countenance voting for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

In order to evaluate the importance of the PPC to the Canadian landscape, it is vital to look at the partys electoral impact. In the 2019 federal election, the PPC achieved a mere 1.6% of the popular vote. However, analysis by CBC newsshowed that even with its dismal level of support the PPC cost the Conservatives seven seats in the House of Commons by splitting the vote.

Moreover, irrespective of the PPCs election results, it is impressive that,in just over a year,Bernier managed to create a new federal political party, found candidates to run in all of Canadas 338 federal electoral districts and participated in all the televised pre-election leadersdebates. If Bernier achieved all of this within 12 months, what can he achieve within 12 years?

Although the PPC failed to win any seats in the 2021 federal election, the partys share of the popular vote increased from 1.6% to 4.94%. The detrimental electoral significance of the PPC was recognized by the Conservative leader Erin OToole in the run-up to theelection. Direct personal communication with a source within the PPC further underlined the threat that the partys presence on the ballot may have cost the Conservatives about 21 ridings in this years election.

Given the failure of OToole to win in 2021, an additional significant outcome of the emergence of the PPC is that the Conservative Party could face pressure to move further to the right in order to win a greater share of the popular vote. Indeed, OTooles leadership position immediately came under threat byfar-rightelements within his own party on the grounds that he was too moderate. By February 2022, he was removed from the partysleadership.

Although the PPC remains a so-called fringe party, this is not to deny its impact. It was responsible for sometimes splitting the center-right vote and contributing to the Liberal Partys success, as well as now possibly helping to force the Conservative Party into a more radically right-wingdirection. Indeed, some contenders for OTooles now-vacant seat as party leader have also started to speak out in support of theconvoy. However, it is also worth noting that the PPCs electoral impact might not necessarily be the beginning of a new trend.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented Bernier with the opportunity to appeal to an outlier proportion of the population which, without the PPC, might not have had a sympathetic ear in Parliament anti-vaxxers and anyone vehemently opposed to health measures instituted to contain the pandemic. Although the majority of Canadas population champion vaccines, mask-wearing and similar public health measures, the fact that the PPC was the only political party opposed to vaccine passports allowed it to generate additional support from this cohort that accounts for 8%-10% of thepopulation.

This support is further demonstrated by the fact that the PPC did best in those provinces with the lowest vaccination rates, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The PPCs anti-lockdown rhetoric and strong stance against Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus vaccine mandates were, therefore, partly responsible for its rise in the polls, as suggested by some academic experts who state that Historically, populism tends to appear in times ofcrises.

The PPC has not only had a tangible impact on Canadian politics, but also an ideological one. Canada has traditionally been seen as immune to the outbreak of right-wing populism observed in other established westerndemocracies. That is, until now, as Republican figures such as Ted Cruz and Donald Trump praise the actions of the Ottawa protesters and denounce Trudeau as afar left lunatic.

Berniers campaign manifestos of 2019 and 2021 also look similar to populist and nationalist counterparts elsewhere, namelyUKIP and the Republican Party under DonaldTrumpin the US.ThePPC manifesto, for instance,states its opposition to climate change policies (Withdraw from the Paris Accord and abandon unrealistic greenhouse gas emission reduction targets); commitment to end to Canadas participation in global institutions (Withdraw from all UN commitments); and xenophobic resentment in its anti-immigration plans (Substantially lower the total number of immigrants and refugees Canada accept every year).

A noteworthy addition to the PPCs 2021 manifesto that also has echoes of other nationalist/populist party positions is its consideration of race. In the lead-up to the 2021 federal election, the mainstream parties focused on the economic and political rights of indigenous peoples following the uncovering of unmarked graves of hundreds of indigenous children on the properties of former residential schools. The PPC, by contrast, went in the opposite direction and instead looked to repeal the Multiculturalism Act of 1988, which aims to not only preserve but enhance multiculturalism in Canada.

This, in addition to the PPCs call to reduce the number of immigrants, contradicts awidely-held belief that nativism has become impossible, even unthinkable, for a competitive political party in Canadatoday. It is for this reason that Berniers embrace of radical right-wing populism has heightened concerns about the importation of Trumpism and other far right ideologies into mainstream Canadianpolitics.

The emergence of the PPC has pointed a light at a potentially darker underbelly within Canadian politics, one that may demonstrate violent sentiments. The throwing of gravel at Trudeau during the 2021 election campaign by the former PPC president of the London Riding Association is a case inpoint.

The potential political impact of the PPC is undeniable. At a theoretical level, it points to a need to consider the importance of fringe parties in discussions of Canadian politics in general. The PPC also stands as a bellwether, representing a potential future trend. Furthermore, the party is significant as it has had a detrimental impact on the electoral success of the Conservative Party and possibly its future direction of travel.

Most concerning, however, is its ideological impact. As David Moscrop posits in Global News, The Peoples Party of Canada has become a rallying point for extremists who existed before it did, but who now have an organisational anchor andhome.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

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The Radical Impact of Canadas Fringe Parties - Fair Observer

The current inflation levels are the result of a gradual corruption of political systems.

Governments irresponsible fiscal policies and the monetary measures of central banks, in clear breach of statutory law, have long been paving the way for inflation. Such dangerous practices have been taking place in democratic and authoritarian regimes all over the world. They are the result of populist tactics from politicians seeking approval from their clientele.

The appalling consequence of all this is that political systems have bought voters with their own money. This form of corruption takes place through redistribution. A classic example of this is: take money from Peter (the alleged rich) and give it to Paul. Paul (the majority) is grateful and votes for those who give him money. However, Peter is the one who invests in the economy, either by working harder or thanks to savings, and therefore in such situations, capital is taken out of the economy and economic activity is adversely affected because of wrong incentives.

Governments and administrations, whose function should be to provide services to citizens, have rather taken on the role of an authority figure that watches and controls the population, all under the guise of benevolence. But most often this benevolence amounts to buying votes in democracies or boosting regime approval in autocracies.

Politicians have so far preferred to ignore or minimize the problem, since the austerity measures needed to solve the issue would take away the tool to appease voters with money.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money. And here we are now. Over the last 20 years, both conservative and liberal parties have joined the social democrats in resorting to populism and started implementing socialist policies. And then, more recently, short-term politics began dictating central banks actions. This started with measures like zero-to-negative interest rates and quantitative easing to release an unlimited flood of money. In parallel, some economists began promoting Modern Monetary Theory, stating that governments can incur unlimited debt without adverse consequences. These claims defy all empirical economic science and sheer common sense they are no more than fraud.

Inflation was the unsurprising result. Asset inflation has long been rocketing, but the trend went unnoticed because the focus is on consumer price indexes (CPI). But suddenly, with supply chain problems CPIs started to rise rapidly in the United States and Europe.

Inflation is a hidden tax. It affects every layer of society. It leads to misery and unrest.

This is an issue that has to be addressed. Politicians have so far preferred to ignore or minimize the problem, since the austerity measures needed to solve the issue would take away the tool to appease voters with money. But this money is not a gift from a benevolent government, it is capital that is being misappropriated from others.

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve has at least acknowledged the issue and is starting to tighten the money supply. Six months ago, the European Central Bank (ECB) declared that inflation would be kept in the desired two percent range. Now CPI inflation in the eurozone exceeds 5 percent. Christine Lagarde, ECB President, and main guardian of the stability of the euro, is trying to lull the public by declaring this is a momentary phenomenon, caused by short-term supply chain problems. She claims this will not trigger the wages-price spiral that normally drives inflation. But she hypocritically omits to mention the other underlying reasons for inflation, like huge public deficits and irresponsible overspending. And wages will have to increase.

The situation requires honesty and common sense. But they are in short supply.

Europe is clinging to its illusions and the public is being misled by governments and the Central Bank. Green economy, global warming and Covid relief have provided perfect excuses to continue this madness. It is possible that Ms. Lagarde does not realize what she is doing her past experience is in politics, not in central banking. She may be insufficiently familiar with the principles of monetary and fiscal policy, or overly concerned with preserving the current political power setup, at least in the short term. After all, her own appointment was political. Let us assume this is what lies at the heart of the problem rather than a coordinated attempt to establish a centralized technocratic system that will harm market efficiency, and limit prosperity and individual freedom. But the end result remains the same. European democracies are on the path to complete political corruption. And the ECB is leading the way.

Read more from the original source:

The link between inflation and corruption - Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG

American right-wing pundits have taken great interest in the Canadian freedom convoy of truckers who have protested Covid-19 restrictions in Canada by occupying parts of the countrys capital and blockading U.S.-Canadian border crossings. But Fox News host Tucker Carlson is downright giddy about the possibility of a counterpart to the Canadian protest movement rising in the United States, and has been using his platform to try to boost the likelihood of that happening.

Last week on his show, Carlson effusively praised the convoy as the premier human rights movement of our era:

We want freedom, the truckers are saying, freedom from mandates. It's a very straightforward ask, but so far, the truckers don't have that freedom, and so their blockade continues. So far, that blockade has forced the Ford motor company to shut down one of its manufacturing plants and to operate another plant with a skeleton crew.

[T]his protest is less than a week old and already is causing deep pain to at least one global industry. It's hard to overstate the historical significance of what we're watching right here. The Canadian trucker convoy is the single most successful human rights protest in a generation. If nothing else, it has been a very useful reminder to our entitled ruling class, the working class man can be pushed, but only so far.

He sees the trucker protests as a useful vehicle for advancing right-wing populism and in the process, hes helping reveal why its claim to anti-elitism is specious.

Nowhere in Carlsons analysis is there a reckoning with the reality that unrestrained Covid is most dangerous to the working class.

The convoy was initially sparked by a small group of Canadian cross-border truckers angry over losing their exemption to vaccine mandates in January. Since then, their protests have been joined by others, and evolved into a broader protest against any kind of Covid restriction at all in Canada one of the protesters in Carlsons segment says, We want freedom, freedom of all mandates. (Its also attracted far-right white supremacist activity.)

Some context: Around 90 percent of Canadian truckers are vaccinated which is to say, this isnt a matter of the entire industry feeling unacceptably oppressed. And as Voxs Zack Beauchamp has pointed out, polling shows Canadians have not only been widely supportive of their country's current Covid restrictions, but also according to at least one poll, the January edition of the Covid-19 Monitor, most favor a stricter protocol: 70 percent support to some degree a vaccine mandate for all eligible adults in Canada, a more sweeping mandate than what any province requires. Moreover, the trucker protests are unpopular in Canada, and becoming even less so over time. None of these data points in and of themselves signify that these protests are illegitimate, but they do complicate Carlsons simplistic depiction of a movement on behalf of the downtrodden everyman.

More relevant as Carlson tries to usher a trucker convoy into existence in the U.S. is the fact that Canada has significantly stricter Covid protocols than the U.S., such as vaccine passports for domestic and international travel and far more aggressive lockdowns, including curfews, in response to surges. By contrast, the U.S. has not only been more relaxed about Covid restrictions including through the omicron surge but its also trending toward dropping basic mask mandates even in liberal states. While the U.S. is still debating policies like mask mandates in schools, the country is open for business, doesnt restrict travel, and the Supreme Court has struck down the Biden administrations large employer vaccine mandate. In other words, the U.S. is not trending toward Covid-mitigating tyranny but rather swiftly toward normalcy more quickly in fact than federal public health experts and President Joe Biden would prefer.

Despite this trend, Carlson, who is selling I heart truckers T-shirts that encourage solidarity with the truckers, is desperate to encourage Canada to export its pro-Covid movement to the U.S., with segments like his interview with an American trucker interested in participating in an American convoy.

Part of this is because, as Eric Levitz points out in New York Magazine, these truckers allow right-wing populist thought leaders to do what they do best: launch vague, nihilistic attacks on elites without discussing the origins of inequality or the kind of programs like wealth redistribution that might actually meaningfully contest their power. There may be no real crisis in the U.S. for these protesters to respond to, but figures like Carlson know that a trucker convoy can activate and mobilize activists whose energy can then be subsumed into ongoing right-wing populist projects.

The trucker movement typifies the radical vision of conservative freedom that has emerged over the course of the pandemic.

The convoy is also exciting for Carlson because the trucker movement typifies the radical vision of conservative freedom that has emerged over the course of the pandemic: the liberty to do harm to others in the name of hyperindividualism and to frame a serious, highly infectious illness as a purely personal matter, rather than a societal one.

Nowhere in Carlsons analysis is there a reckoning with the reality that unrestrained Covid is most dangerous to the working class he claims to champion. Lower-income people working, for example, in the retail industry or at restaurants often dont have the privilege of being able to work from home, and are more exposed to the risks of Covid regardless of their personal risk threshold. People from poor and marginalized communities are disproportionately likely to die from Covid. And taking precautions against Covid with masks and vaccines are precisely the kind of measures that will allow commerce to continue Covid is more likely to render businesses dysfunctional among a workforce that refuses to take commonsense measures to slow its spread and severity.

The socioeconomic factors that have caused disproportionately lower-income people to mistrust credentialed experts and government authorities on vaccines and masks need to be taken seriously and dealt with. But Carlson is merely looking to take advantage of mistrust.

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Politico, and he has also been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation and elsewhere.

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What Tucker Carlson's love for the 'freedom convoy' reveals - MSNBC

The United States presents itself as the beacon of democracy in contrast to the autocracies of China and Russia. Yet American democracy is in danger of succumbing to the same sort of oligarchic economics and racist nationalism that thrive in both these powers.

After all, it wasnt long ago that Donald Trump who openly admired Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin encouraged racist nationalism in America while delivering much of the US government into the hands of Americas super-rich.

Now state-level Republicans are busily suppressing votes of people of color and paving the way for a possible anti-democratic coup, while the national Republican party excuses the attack on the Capitol calling it legitimate political discourse and censures Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only two congressional Republicans serving on the panel investigating that attack.

Americas oligarchic wealth, meanwhile, has reached levels rivaling or exceeding those of Russia and China. During the pandemic, Americas 745 billionaires increased their holdings by 70%, adding $2.1tn to their wealth in just over a year.

A portion of this wealth is going into politics. As early as 2012, more than 40% of all money spent in federal elections came from the wealthiest of the wealthiest not the top 1% or even the top tenth of the 1%, but from the top 1% of the 1%.

Now, some of this wealth is supporting Trumpism. Peter Thiel, a staunch Trump supporter whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $2.6bn, has become one of the Republican partys largest donors.

Last year, Thiel gave $10m each to the campaigns of two protgs Blake Masters, who is running for the Senate from Arizona, and JD Vance, from Ohio. Thiel is also backing 12 House candidates, three of whom are running primary challenges to Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for the events of January 6.

Its not just Republicans. Last year, at least 13 billionaires who had previously donated to Trump lavished campaign donations on Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

The combination of oligarchic wealth and racist nationalism is treacherous for democratic institutions in the US and elsewhere. Capitalism is consistent with democracy only if democracy reduces the inequalities, insecurities, joblessness, and poverty that accompany unbridled profit-seeking.

For the first three decades after the second world war, democracy did this. The US and war-ravaged western Europe built the largest middle classes the world had ever seen, and the most buoyant democracies.

The arrangement was far from perfect, but with the addition of civil rights and voting rights, subsidized healthcare (in the US, Medicare and Medicaid), and a vast expansion of public education, democracy was on the way to making capitalism work for the vast majority.

Then came a giant U-turn, courtesy of Ronald Reagan in America and Margaret Thatcher in Europe. Deregulation, privatization, globalization, and the unleashing of finance created the Full Monty: abandoned factories and communities, stagnant wages, widening inequality, a shrinking middle class, political corruption and shredded social support.

The result has been widespread anger and cynicism. Even before the pandemic, most people were working harder than ever but couldnt get ahead, and their childrens prospects werent any better. More than one out of every six American children was impoverished and the typical American family was living from paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, a record high share of national wealth was already surging to the top.

Starting last July, America did an experiment that might have limited these extremes and reduced the lure of racist nationalism. Thats when 36 million American families began receiving pandemic payments of up to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for each child under six).

Presto. Child poverty dropped by at least a third, and the typical family gained some breathing space.

But this hugely successful experiment ended abruptly in December when Senator Joe Manchin joined 50 Republican senators in rejecting President Bidens Build Back Better Act, which would have continued it.

They cited concerns over the experiments cost an estimated $100bn per year, or $1.6tn over 10 years. But thats less than big corporations and the rich will have saved on taxes from the Trump Republican tax cut of 2018. Repeal it, and there would be enough money. The cost is also less than the increase in the wealth of Americas 745 billionaires during the pandemic. Why not a wealth tax?

The experiment died because, put simply, the oligarchy didnt want to pay for it.

Oligarchic economics coupled with racist nationalism marks the ultimate failure of progressive politics. Beware. When the people are no longer defended against the powerful, they look elsewhere.

More here:

Beware of this deadly mix: oligarchic economics and racist, nationalist populism - The Guardian

The British progressive rock band Jethro Tull released The Zealot Gene on January 28, the first recording of all new music by the group in more than twenty years. With words and music written by founder-leader Ian Anderson, the new record is a legitimate addition to the discography of the band, which started in Blackpool (a seaside resort on Englands northwest coast) playing the blues in 1967 and went on to become an internationally successful progressive rock group in the 1970s.

The new album contains a mixture of acoustic songs and heavier rock tracks featuring the eclectic blend of musical styles and influences that are central to Jethro Tulls sound. Also, the lyrics demonstrate Andersons affinity for story-telling and commentary on current and historical social phenomena from unique, not to say eccentric, points of view.

In keeping with progressive rocks concept album format, The Zealot Gene is comprised of twelve songs that reference Biblical text as inspiration for an exploration of human emotions such as compassion, tolerance, loyalty, love, jealousy, greed and hate.

As Anderson explains in the liner notes, he is not a man of faith when it comes to conventional, organized religions, but the Bible verses fueled my songwriting and were the starting point for elaborating examples of extreme feelings from different vantage points. While he typically finds images like photos or paintings to prompt his observational lyrics, the trigger this time was, immortal words from 1611 [King James Bible] which, for me, immediately conjure visual images that can be used to interpret and vocalize the subject matter.

If listeners have occasionally been baffled in the past by Andersons sometimes abstruse metaphors and colloquial adages, they will welcome the supporting material in the CD packaging. The words for each song appear along with the associated Bible verse and track notes explain what the songs are about. Listeners can also watch a series of video interviews with Ian Anderson on the bands YouTube channel where he reviews the creative process, the album concept and the production process, which were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studio work on the album began in 2017 and, due to touring and other project obligations, seven backing tracks were recorded, and four tracks were completed before the pandemic hit in early 2020. The balance of the album was produced long distance with members of the bandDavid Goodier on bass, John OHara on keyboards, Florian Opahle and Joe Parrish-James on guitar and Scott Hammond on drumsrecording their parts separately from their home studios and sending them in to Anderson for the final mixing and mastering. Longtime Jethro Tull lead guitarist Martin Barre does not appear on the new album, having departed the band for a solo career in 2011.

The title track of The Zealot Gene unmistakably references would-be American dictator Donald Trump, with the lines, The populist with dark appeal / The pandering to hate / Which xenophobic scaremongers / Deliver on the plate.

Anderson writes in the track notes, As a song lyric; it sums up, for me, the divisive nature of societal relationships and the extreme views which fuel the fires of hate and prejudice Perhaps you think you know who I might have been thinking about here but, in reality, there are probably now at least five prominent dictatorial international figures who could fit the bill.

We have, needless to say, significant problems with the idea that humans are genetically preconditioned for extremism, whether in the form of contemporary right-wing populism or in the referenced biblical verse from Ezekiel about the slaughter of idolators with battle axes in Jerusalem. For one, it incorrectly attributes the source of ideological and political conflict to biology instead of socio-economic interests.

However, Anderson seems to be using the zealot gene as a device to advocate for middle-of-the-road political moderation and to warn of unintended consequences when social media is used uncritically or made a barrier to political discourse. He writes in the liner notes, It is almost as if we have some genetic component driving us toward that sub-intellectual graffiti for which the outlet, these days, is let loose by the aerosol spray of social media.

While opposing, prejudice, xenophobia and hard right conservatism, he also takes a swipe at wokeness, calling it a trendy and overworked viewpoint that can all-too-easily stifle the process of the direct exchange of views.

The other tracks on the album are less problematic. The opening song, Mrs. Tibbets, was inspired by the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24-28. The song examines the barbaric bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US Air Force on the morning of August 6, 1945. Brigadier General Paul Tibbets flew the heavy bomber, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress called the Enola Gay, which he personally named after his mother the previous day.

The lyrics portray the rationalizations given to Mrs. Tibbets to justify the mass murder: Dont feel bad, they said, about the numbers / Dont feel bad about the melting heat / The burning flesh, the soft white cell demise. / And the shattered ground beneath the trembling feet.

The line in the chorus, Mrs. Tibbets little boy, makes a double reference to her pilot son and the codename for the five-ton bomb. Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare and the first of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan as ordered by US President Harry S. Truman. Estimates of the number killed by US imperialism in the two blasts range from 130,000 to 215,000 people.

Of course, a big part of Jethro Tulls sound is Andersons use of the flute as a rock music instrument. While he is not the only artist to do it, he is the most well-known and he has an immediately recognizable style. In crafting songs about intense emotion, Anderson shows that the concert flute can be made to express a variety of feelings and this range is extended by his signature multiphonic vocalizations. The impact of the technique comes through in the portrayal of an angry Old Testament God in the track, Mine is the Mountain.

Another method Anderson has used is to play the flute in unison or harmony with the electric guitar. This is done effectively on the opening riff to The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde, an allegorical tale about deception among cold war spies. Other instruments such as harmonica, mandolin, Irish whistle, acoustic guitar and accordion make their appearance on the lighter tracks such as Jacobs Tales, Sad City Sisters and Three Loves, Three.

Using Bible verse to either express agnosticism or question Christian doctrine is not new for the band. Jethro Tulls most popular album Aqualung, released in 1971, has sold more than three million copies and contains a preamble in the liner notes which is a rewriting of Genesis 1:1, In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.

At that time, Aqualung was banned from radio play in Spain by the fascist regime of Francisco Franco and there were publicized burnings of the record in the US by some Bible Belt evangelicals. However, the ideas critical of the Christian church in tracks like My God, Hymn 43 and Wind Up also intermingled with the rebellious moods among the youth and contributed to the rising global popularity of Jethro Tull.

Anderson, 74, became the sole leader and creative force of Jethro Tull in 1969 after the departure of founding guitarist Mick Abrahams. Following the release of their first album This Was, the two clashed over the artistic direction of the group. Abrahams wanted Jethro Tull to remain a blues-based band and Anderson, influenced by the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, wanted to move in a more experimental direction.

Following the success of Aqualung, Jethro Tull rode a wave of mass progressive rock popularity with bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, and released a studio album every year through 1980. The albums were followed by world tours, with live performances before sold-out crowds at arenas on five continents. During these years, Ian Andersons stage antics and costumes played directly into criticisms of progressive rock as pretentious and bombastic.

Among the more remarkable accomplishments of Jethro Tull during those years was that two concept albums with 45 minutes of continuous complex music and dense lyricsThick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973)both rose to number one on the US charts. While the rock music press generally panned these records, listening audiences embraced them.

Later in the decade, the band pursued a folk-rock direction and with Songs from the Wood (1977), Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979) that melded ethnic acoustic instruments and Scottish musical themes with heavy electric guitar riffs and rhythms. The lyrics on these records articulated Andersons concerns about industrial society, population growth and dwindling natural resources.

While the popularity of progressive rock faded in the 1980s and beyond, many of the most popular groups were able to continue by making new music and/or performing live concerts for their fans. The onset of the pandemic disrupted these cycles and, with most of the musicians now in their mid-to-late 70s, they have had to find new ways of interacting with audiences and to figure out what they will do in their later years.

With The Zealot Gene, Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull have released an engaging album. Whether listeners choose to enjoy the music or become involved with the conceptual elements, the album provides both new and old audiences with an opportunity to learn about one of the more thoughtful and significant artists of the era.

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Veteran musician Ian Anderson comments on right-wing populism with Jethro Tull's The Zealot Gene - WSWS

The former president is not alone.

I hope the truckers do come to America, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, told The Daily Signal, a conservative website. Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.

Nor was all this confined to North America. Ottawa truckers convoy galvanizes far right worldwide, an article in Politico on Feb. 6 declared. Leading Republicans, right-wing influencers and white supremacist groups have jumped at the chance to promote the standoff in Ottawa to a global audience.

In Bowling for Fascism: Social Capital and the Rise of the Nazi Party, a 2017 paper in the Journal of Political Economy, Shanker Satyanath of N.Y.U., Nico Voigtlnder of U.C.L.A. and Hans-Joachim Voth of the University of Zurich offer a counterintuitive perspective on the spread of right-wing organizing in Canada, Hungary, Brazil, India, Poland, Austria and in the United States.

The three authors argue that in the 1930s in Europe:

dense networks of civic associations such as bowling clubs, choirs, and animal breeders went hand in hand with a more rapid rise of the Nazi Party. Towns with one standard deviation higher association density saw at least one-third faster entry. All types of associations veteran associations and nonmilitary clubs, bridging and bonding associations positively predict National Socialist Party entry. Party membership, in turn, predicts electoral success. These results suggest that social capital aided the rise of the Nazi movement that ultimately destroyed Germanys first democracy.

Andrs Rodrguez-Pose, Neil Lee and Cornelius Lipp, all of the London School of Economics, pick up this argument in a November 2021 paper on the paradoxical role of social capital in fostering far-right movements. Noting that the positive view of social capital has, more recently, been challenged, the three economic geographers write:

The rise in votes for Trump was the result of long-term economic and population decline in areas with strong social capital. This hypothesis is confirmed by the econometric analysis conducted for U.S. counties. Long-term declines in employment and population rather than in earnings, salaries, or wages in places with relatively strong social capital propelled Donald Trump to the presidency and almost secured his re-election.

It is, the three authors continue,

precisely the long-term economic and demographic decline of the places that still rely on a relatively strong social capital that is behind the rise of populism in the U.S. Strong but declining communities in parts of the American Rust Belt, the Great Plains and elsewhere reacted at the ballot box to being ignored, neglected and being left behind.

Translated to the present, in economic and culturally besieged communities, the remnants of social capital have been crucial to the mobilization of men and women mostly men who chanted, you will not replace us and blood and soil in Charlottesville, who shot bear spray at police officers on Jan. 6 and who brought Ottawa to its knees for more than two weeks.

In a separate paper, The Rise of Populism and the Revenge of the Places, Rodrguez-Pose argued, Populism is not the result of persistent poverty. Places that have been chronically poor are not the ones rebelling. Instead, he continued,

the rise of populism is a tale of how the long-term decline of formerly prosperous places, disadvantaged by processes that have rendered them exposed and almost expendable, has triggered frustration and anger. In turn, voters in these so-called places that dont matter have sought their revenge at the ballot box.

In an email, Rodrguez-Pose wrote:

Social capital in the U.S. has been declining for a long time. Associationism and the feeling of community are no longer what they used to be, and this has been documented many times. What my co-authors and I are saying is that in those places (counties) where social capital has declined less, long-term demographic and employment decline triggered a switch to Donald Trump. These communities have said enough is enough of a system that they feel bypasses them and voted for an anti-system candidate, who is willing to shake the foundations of the system.

In a separate email, Lee noted that while most analysts view higher social capital as a healthy development in communities, it can also foster negative ethnic and racial solidarity: Social capital can be a great thing when it is open and inclusive. But when everyone knows each other, this can result in in-group dynamics particularly when people are led to be concerned about other groups.

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Opinion | Theres a Reason Trump Loves the Truckers - The New York Times