A Resurgent Right in European Elections Offers Lessons for the American Vote To Come in November

The extraordinary repudiation of the establishment and its policies in the European Union Parliamentary elections is fascinating. It could be an indicator of the pressures, moods, and issues which are also evident on this side of the Atlantic.It’s true, American politics are different from European politics. Even within the 27 different countries in the EU, politics can be incredibly different. However, there are some cultural developments and larger historic patterns in Europe that could apply to the American elections this fall.Europeans and Americans have been hit hard by inflation. Both have been overwhelmed with illegal immigrants. Both have government bureaucracies which keep making life harder with costly regulations and red tape. Both see the green environmental movement as wasteful, imposing, and inconvenient. Both see their elites seeking to impose radical social and cultural values through government power.On both sides of the Atlantic, there is a driving force behind conservative populism. It is a sense of fighting for personal and community survival against the constant pressure of bureaucratic, political, and press elites — who either do not know, or do not care, how much pain they are causing.If the American elite establishment news media was still driven by objectivity and curiosity, it would study the European results. Reporters, anchors, and editors would ask how Europe could help them understand the mood of the American people. They would also have a much better understanding of the movement President Trump is leading.The Trump movement gains strength and staying power because it is for real change. It does not want to do a marginally better job managing the current system. It wants to replace the current system with deep and dramatic changes. It wants to stop and reverse inflation. It wants to preserve and defend American civilization. It wants to end illegal immigration — and fix legal immigration. It wants to rescue millions of American families from the wave of drug overdose deaths that are haunting the country. It aims to move back toward a free, citizen-led nation rather than one led by unelected bureaucrats in faceless agencies.Mr. Trump is successfully surviving despite the lawsuits, trials, and press assaults. This is because he is the leader of a movement. He is not a traditional candidate. Every attack on Trump is an attack on the ideas, values, principles, and people who make up that movement.Virtually every populist leader in Europe can understand the dynamics of forces trying to destroy Trump. They also understand how his popular support continues to grow despite the attacks. This phenomenon has been repeated in country after country. In some ways, it is the heart of the rise of populism.The European elections help underscore how big President Biden’s problem is. As Nate Silver of Five-thirty-eight noted, Mr. Biden is now down to 37.4 percent approval. This puts him almost at the level of being unelectable. Mr. Silver suggested that the time may come in the near future when Democrats must face dumping their president or enduring a catastrophic election outcome that could sweep the House, Senate, and White House.After all, if Democrats don’t turn out to re-elect Mr. Biden, they also aren’t going to be there for other Democratic candidates. That was the result for Republicans in 1964 when Senator Goldwater collapsed. It was the result for Democrats in 1980 when President Jimmy Carter collapsed. Republicans elected Ronald Reagan and unexpectedly won control of the Senate.Mr. Biden was having dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at about the time Mr. Macron was confronting the disaster that was overwhelming his party coalition. The French president’s party only got 14.6 percent of the vote while Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party received 31.4 percent of the European Union Parliamentary vote.You must wonder if Mr. Biden learned anything from being in Europe for the Normandy Landing 80th anniversary celebration.Did it occur to Mr. Biden that the collapse of the governing left across most of Europe might be a harbinger of the collapse of his coalition in America?Did anyone on the Biden traveling team note the similarity between the enthusiastic turnout for European populist insurgencies and the size of the Trump rallies across America?The rise of the right and collapse of the center left in Europe does not automatically mean the same thing is going to happen in America — but there sure are a lot of parallels.

A Resurgent Right in European Elections Offers Lessons for the American Vote To Come in November

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