Tim Carter on Brexit, Corbyn, Farage and Trump
There is an interesting piece on the "Middle Vision" website by Tim Carter about the events of 2016 and those that led up to them which you can read here.
He's talking about the mistakes made by the left but I think all those involved in mainstream politics could usefully pay attention.
A few extracts to give you the flavour:
"The reaction to the Trump victory by many ‘on the left’ has been sadly predictable. When they are not busy claiming voters are stupid or that voters were duped, they resort to blaming the establishment politicians or suggesting that we need ‘a real left wing alternative’, whatever that is.
Does that sound similar? It should because there was the same reaction to Brexit.
But the left have to share some of the blame.
If you encourage people to hate the establishment surely you can’t be surprised when people vote for someone with that message.
If you spend years blaming bankers for everything – and if voters flock to someone with that message – then you must also share the burden of blame.
If you lead marches claiming politics is broken and urge people to vote for ‘a different way of doing politics’ again don’t be surprised when they do.
When you weaponise abuse & hate you don’t control who uses that weapon. But you created it so you have to accept the responsibility for it and understand that others will use it.
I am sure that many will disagree but I believe that Corbyn, Farage, Brexit and Trump are linked and that they all feed on the same thing. They feed on a message that is at its most base a message of fear and loathing.
They have created monsters out of bankers, politicians, institutions and pushed hate and fear in equal measures."
"Shortly after the global financial crash small groups from both the left and right started to demonise bankers. After the 2010 general election Ed Miliband started to create an atmosphere where ‘banker bashing’ was acceptable.
Activists (in most cases spreading a message of hate) spent Saturday mornings attempting to disrupt parts of our retail industry or marching through London wearing Guy Fawkes masks – again sending out a message that politicians and the political establishment were the enemies of the people.
As sure as night follows day these demonstrations fed the Brexit and Farage messages that our politics was broken and needed to change. All it needed was someone to mainstream it."
"We didn’t tackle the issues. We didn’t listen to the voters. We talked at them and not to them. We claimed to be ‘having a conversation with them’ but we were simply telling them what to do. We told them they were wrong.
When that failed we attempted to out-hate the haters!
And when that didn’t work we attempted to demonise their candidates or messages.
And when we lost – we blamed the voters!"
He's talking about the mistakes made by the left but I think all those involved in mainstream politics could usefully pay attention.
A few extracts to give you the flavour:
"The reaction to the Trump victory by many ‘on the left’ has been sadly predictable. When they are not busy claiming voters are stupid or that voters were duped, they resort to blaming the establishment politicians or suggesting that we need ‘a real left wing alternative’, whatever that is.
Does that sound similar? It should because there was the same reaction to Brexit.
But the left have to share some of the blame.
If you encourage people to hate the establishment surely you can’t be surprised when people vote for someone with that message.
If you spend years blaming bankers for everything – and if voters flock to someone with that message – then you must also share the burden of blame.
If you lead marches claiming politics is broken and urge people to vote for ‘a different way of doing politics’ again don’t be surprised when they do.
When you weaponise abuse & hate you don’t control who uses that weapon. But you created it so you have to accept the responsibility for it and understand that others will use it.
I am sure that many will disagree but I believe that Corbyn, Farage, Brexit and Trump are linked and that they all feed on the same thing. They feed on a message that is at its most base a message of fear and loathing.
They have created monsters out of bankers, politicians, institutions and pushed hate and fear in equal measures."
"Shortly after the global financial crash small groups from both the left and right started to demonise bankers. After the 2010 general election Ed Miliband started to create an atmosphere where ‘banker bashing’ was acceptable.
Activists (in most cases spreading a message of hate) spent Saturday mornings attempting to disrupt parts of our retail industry or marching through London wearing Guy Fawkes masks – again sending out a message that politicians and the political establishment were the enemies of the people.
As sure as night follows day these demonstrations fed the Brexit and Farage messages that our politics was broken and needed to change. All it needed was someone to mainstream it."
"We didn’t tackle the issues. We didn’t listen to the voters. We talked at them and not to them. We claimed to be ‘having a conversation with them’ but we were simply telling them what to do. We told them they were wrong.
When that failed we attempted to out-hate the haters!
And when that didn’t work we attempted to demonise their candidates or messages.
And when we lost – we blamed the voters!"
Comments
When that failed we attempted to out-hate the haters!
And when that didn’t work we attempted to demonise their candidates or messages.
And when we lost – we blamed the voters!"
- its the system that is broken, not so much the politicians or the voters, its the entire system of representative democracy that is the problem.
Its Yesterdays answer, to yesterdays problems, in yesterdays world.