Never vote for a right-wing politician. They never deliver on what they promise, unless it's a promise to be cruel to another group of people. They're good at that. But they're not so good at keeping their promises on making society better (except for a select few: their donors and their wealthy friends). And that's because they never had any intention to make things better for you. They're not interested in you. They are only interested in your vote.
I do find it remarkable that in 2024 the world is seeing a resurgence in the popularity of right-wing politics. Apparently, the lessons learned from the disastrous reigns of Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and countless others in the 20th century are in the too distant past. As a species, we don't seem to be able to make a connection between atrocities exacted on others and the ideologies that led to them. Because if you could make that connection, and you were horrified by the holocaust, numerous mass killings in the 20th century, and other acts of imperialist aggression, then how could you even consider supporting politicians like Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Javier Milei, Giorgia Meloni, Marie Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, etc.? Their plans are to revisit all of these disasters on the world again, yet the average citizen seems oblivious to the peril.
I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. As a collective, human beings are not much more evolved than the rest of the animal kingdom. We are still ruled by fear and anger. Even when our lives are not at stake, we tend to react in extreme and disproportional ways, as if there were an existential crisis, to whatever our problems are. And the existential crisis that does face us, climate change, is ignored. It's not in our face enough. It hasn't become personal to enough people that will trigger the political will necessary to change our trajectory.
I was reminded of the stupidity of humankind when I recently read Walter Tevis's 1963 novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth. It is the story of an alien, Newton, who has been sent to Earth with a mission of helping his species to migrate to Earth because of drought on his home planet. Near the end of the novel, Newton is having a conversation with Dr. Bryce (a human interested in understanding Newton better) who is trying to convince Newton that humans are intelligent and should be given the opportunity to solve their own problems.
Newton: “Do you realize that you will not only wreck your civilization, such as it is, and kill most of your people; but that you will also poison the fish in your rivers, the squirrels in your trees, the flocks of birds, the soil, the water? There are times when you seem, to us, like apes loose in a museum, carrying knives, slashing the canvases, breaking the statuary with hammers.”
Dr. Bryce: "But it was human beings who painted the pictures, made the statues.”
Newton: "Only a few human beings, only a few.”
"Only a few human beings." What a great reminder that only a very few human beings have demonstrated genius in some way throughout human history. The rest of us are rather ordinary and mediocre, but we tend to take a lot of pride in the accomplishments of these very few. It helps us to feel special. But perhaps we shouldn't. Perhaps we should be more humble as a species. After all, we're just like the rest of the animal kingdom - ruled by our base emotions and needs.
When it comes to acquiring your vote, political consultants, especially those on the right, have learned that they don't actually need to do anything for the average voter. They just need to make them afraid or angry (or both). That's the key. Appeal to the base emotions. Distract voters with issues that are not actually critical to the functioning of society, but they are issues which stoke fear and/or anger, and then talk about them constantly. In today's world with instant access to information, the narrative of political messaging could be demonstrably false, but the sheer repetition of that message turns it into a sort of alternative truth. And if that alternative truth somehow confirms an underlying bias, then it becomes even more powerful. Basically, the average voter's brain has been hacked.
Example issues from the present and recent past are immigration, gay marriage, trans rights, "entitlement" programs, and abortion. Of course, these are all important issues, but if you are voting for a candidate primarily based on their stance on one of these issues without any knowledge of what they think about the economy and international affairs, then you are likely to be screwed by this politician in some way. The reality is that these issues provide cover for the real agenda: to maintain the status quo for powerful elites and to consolidate power.
Wealthy donors on the right don't give a shit about immigration. They care about protecting their assets and protecting their ability to amass wealth. So, efforts like tort reform, appointing federal judges, privatization of government agencies, and reduction of the social safety net are far more important to their objectives than immigration and trans rights. Right-wing politicians may keep their promises on the issues of distraction, but don't be surprised when they screw you based on the agenda they didn't tell you about.
Privatization of government services, and now you have to pay more money; allowing venture capital firms to buy residential real estate making it difficult for the average person to buy a home; high prices at the grocery store because corporate greed is rewarded by the stock market; the rising costs of healthcare in a system run by for-profit insurance companies. These are a few examples of what you will get when you vote for a right-wing politician. NONE of it benefits you. In fact, for most voters, the hidden agenda is directly contrary to their interests. But you got tricked. You didn't ask yourself, "Who really benefits from this candidate rising to power?" It's probably not you. Never vote for a right-wing politician.
