American elections
With the Brexit campaign we saw the birth of a new way of doing politics that Trump later embodied fiercely to this day.
I'm talking about a new populism based on ethnic nationalism.
Ethnic and Civic Nationalism
We must differentiate “ethnic” from “civic” nationalism.
The latter refers to the idea of feeling like citizens, members of the same nation, without taking into account the cultural context of each individual, since it is the shared rights and duties that make us members and not the “cultural” ones (religion, skin color, sexual orientation, sex).
El ethnic nationalism It is dangerous, since it is very easy as an individual to feel represented under their speech.
It is an ideology that maintains that your ancestors, your language, your culture, traditions, or skin color determine the national identity to which you belong.
It is dangerous since, in the globalized world in which we live, many groups are not going to feel like members of that National identity, even if they share the same borders, the same taxes or the same job.
Our identity is due to the crossing of genes, cultures and migrations that have occurred throughout history.
Having a patriotic ideal based on cultural or ethnic roots, in my point of view, in addition to being a sign of xenophobia, is a myth.
It is true that the human being is tribal, is organized into groups according to their affinities and common factors, however, human beings have the ability to change their groups, integrate and expand them, or, on the contrary, close them (Sapolsky).
Bauman
Faced with a deep-rooted national and ethnic identity, the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman proposes an identity anchored.
That is, our identity must be subject to the anchor of a ship that keeps you within your nation as a citizen, but that allows you enough mobility to approach new social constructs.
This makes your identity a mutable and hybrid factor, which can go evolving and adapting new traits according to our ship move.
Bauman affirms that we must reinforce the cultural phenomenon of hybridity as a virtue, a symptom of cultural richness, as a sign of distinction rather than as “cultural inferiority” or a degradation that should be condemned.
The perpetuity of a single system of values and behavioral patterns is what shows the sociocultural inferiority and deprivation of individuals.
We could relate Bauman's explanation to the idea of cosmopolitism.
Being "Cosmopolitan"
Theresa May one day said: “If you think you are world citizen, the reality is that you are citizen of nowhere".
Thus we witnessed how this new way of making speeches in favor of ethnic nationalism has a clear message: our national identity is this, and if you do not share it, you are not a patriot; your identity as a citizen is denied.
Being “cosmopolitan” is denigrated, caricatured and confronted by this type of speeches that Trump gives, and also Bolsonaro in Brazil, Santiago Abascal in Spain, Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, Kast in Chile or Orban in Hungary .
This new nationalist populism is not only a problem in the United States, but is spreading throughout the world with parties of the same ideological stripe as Steve Bannon (former advisor to Donald Trump who has been involved in various meetings and forums with various far-right parties in Europe).
New Speeches
But Why do these speeches arise now?
From my point of view, we find ourselves at a key historical moment.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the liberal model has been the winner throughout these years and had no competitors left, as reflected by F. Fukuyama in his work End of History.
INCLUDED China follows this model in economic terms.
Tendency towards Neoliberalism
However, in recent decades, this system has tended towards neoliberalism and Western democracies are suffering a crisis.
Now, social mobility has decreased.
La inequality It hurts the income growth of the working class but not that of the rich.
As a result: rich people even richer and poor people even poorer.
The middle class tends to disappear.
Political Polarization
So, people have begun to be more politically polarized.
People understand that they cannot move socially and, as Marx predicted, our system creates winners and losers.
In fact, Marxist criticism is very current, we can see it present in initiatives such as the platform Progressive International, which unites, organizes and mobilizes progressive forces behind a shared vision of a transformed world.
Influence of Marx
Also we can recognize Marx in the speeches of these new populists.
All of these base their main arguments on the problems identified by the author regarding the consequences of capitalism, and change history to create an enemy to blame.
Is the enemy an unequal system that favors great fortunes and prevents social advancement? No. For them, the common enemy is (poor) migrants, the LGTBIQ+ collective, the “cosmopolitan” elites, progressives, feminists, entire civilizations…
In short, anyone who does not share his idea of “making a homeland.”
Tribalism gains strength
These speeches, in the face of an impoverished and frustrated society, make tribalism gains a lot of strength among public opinion.
They sell a State threatened by a clash of civilizations, cultures and ideologies (as Huntington defended).
El tribalism It makes it even more difficult, in my opinion, to find a solution to the increase in inequality, chronic unemployment and precarious employment, stagnant wages, elite dominance and the social gap, both domestically and internationally.
People no longer know what to believe, they need to feel recognized, within a group in which they identify. The human being is gregarious.
Some citizens are rising up to demand a system that will end structural violence and inequality. Others are rising up against the “outsiders,” contributing to the rise of this new populism.
Fight between Political Projects
Consequently, I see the world today as a system based on liberal theory of International Relations that is falling into pieces.
Now, there is a struggle between a new progressive and internationalist political project and an ethnic nationalist one.
The first believes in a change from the classical liberal model, being more aware of social development, combining this with a sustainable form of multilateralism, seeking a global governance that acts more effectively in the face of problems that affect all nations, such as the issue climate or global health management, which we are currently needing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second is based on the realism of the IR of an anarchic world, hobbesian and historicist.
Could we be living in the middle of a struggle between two very marked scenarios while liberalism (as we used to know it) is falling apart?
Polarization of Public Opinion
Now, Why is public opinion polarizing?
To answer this question, we must take into account the importance of the media and the way of obtaining information that we have today.
Propaganda has always been an effective way to influence public opinion.
Social pressure is a way to change the political order.
What do new leaders who want to change the political order need? Propaganda.
Nowadays it is very easy to achieve it efficiently: social networks and fake news.
In our social networks we tend to content homogenization.
If we are not interested in someone's ideology, we do not follow them, if a person has a different opinion than me, I remove them from the wall.
Our interests are given by algorithms, bots and hooks to web pages with fake news flood our networks and Overinformation makes us distrust what is real and what is not..
Conclusion: we polarize. And here lies the danger of the matter.
A polarized society increasingly enmeshed in anachronistic tribalism is a factor in the emergence of conflicts and violence.
Trump Legislature
Let's go back to Trump.
During his four years in government, he has deepened the gap between the real american and the followers of the coastal elites (Silicon Valley, Hollywood stars, etc.).
This gap has increased the violence between the racial struggle of groups in favor of the movement Black Lives Matter and white supremacist groups, as we have witnessed over the past few months.
Delegitimization of the Electoral Process
This year's campaign has been marked by tension between two sides.
And a concept has come up for debate: the possibility of a new civil war.
The latest statistics show the propensity of Americans to violently confront each other based on election results.
The data shows the surprising affinity for taking to the streets violently if Trump loses.
This leader has made sure delegitimize the electoral process accusing fraud of having been committed, which can serve as license for these pro-Trump groups to take to the streets.
Militias
Some of these groups are considered militias made up of police, soldiers and veterans, that is, people skilled in handling weapons.
Following the verbatim words of Joe Klemm, leader of “Ridge Runners”, a new militia:
For too long, we have given in a little here and there for the sake of peace. But I will tell you that peace is not so sweet. Life is not so expensive. I would rather die than not live free […] We follow the Constitution […] We are going to make those people fear us again. We should have been shooting a long time ago […]
Joe Klemm
This is what makes populism dangerous.
How these discourses can be combated is a complicated question, however, I believe in the power of a united and informed civil society.
But How do we build our opinion?What is the origin of our information sources?
On the one hand, appealing to “emotions” in discourses (fear, anxiety, hatred, resentment, value, anger, etc.) causes a greater propensity for individuals to take political action (Brader et al, 2008).
In addition, interest groups (lobbies) and the preferences of companies have an enormous influence on both the political elites, As in media o think tanks which, after all, are the ones that provide most of the information we consume (Jacobs & Benjamin, 2005).
It is a vicious circle of interest groups that influence the message of the political elite, which, in turn, They generate public opinion, which partisanly supports the political elite and whose information consumed is influenced by the same interest groups, and start over.
However, civil society, according to Kertzer and Zeitzoff (2017), is more reticent to the manipulation of the political “elite” than previously thought, although, on the other hand, it is not immune to social pressure to time to create your opinion; hence the problem that social networks and fake news present with respect to the polarization of public opinion, which I mentioned previously.
Verified Information
For all these reasons, I think about the importance of verified and independent information and the work of educating ourselves in critical thinking.
The influence of public opinion can generate political changes.
We have witnessed this in Chile Recently.
For this reason I believe that, to dismantle these dangerous discourses (which do not advocate ending the negative consequences of globalization, but rather they increase them and revert them towards a conflictive division of society), the key lies in the individual effort of inform us independently and open dialogue bridges with those who think differently, because, even if a common position is not reached, dialogue serves to identify the reasons for their way of thinking.
I think it is the only effective way to break the vicious circle of misinformation and the polarization of society.
Conclusion
Do we want a multilateral system of cooperation, not only economic, but also social, sustainable and respectful of the democratic values of freedom?
Or, on the contrary, do we want a world in which multilateral disintegration reverts us to nation-states with very high walls, where cultural diversity is not found, society is polarized, and the global issues that affect us All of us, wherever we are on the border, remain unresolved?
To answer these questions, we will wait to know the consequences, both in the United States and in the world, of the results of their presidential elections.
View: round table on US elections 2020
Graduated in International Relations, with a mention in Foreign and Security Policy, at the Loyola Andalusia University. In 2019, I completed a 6-month academic stay at the Alberto Hurtado University in Santiado, Chile, where I was also a volunteer.
