The fight against populism can start from the defeat of Trump

 

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Trump's defeat must be analyzed on a broader panorama of the US borders, especially from a political point of view we must look at how the unfavorable electoral result for the populist champion can have repercussions at a general level and also in particular in the vast world current, which refers to the values ​​of populism, which, despite being more present in far-right parties and movements, is not the exclusive prerogative of this political party, having followers even in some far-left movements. The first question is whether this defeat can affect future electoral trends in a cascade. A hallmark of Trump in power was that of clearing through customs practically all the politically incorrect and stigmatized attitudes of traditional political forces; however, it must be specified that this trend was already underway and that Trump only had the merit of increasing to previously unknown levels, the ways in which to overcome political taboos, liberalizing ideas and behaviors, which until then were not externalized and practiced precisely for the limits imposed by the current political culture. The growth of a ruling class not sufficiently prepared and detached from the normal political dialectic, because it grew up in social sectors characterized by a limited vision and relative to particular interests, both of an economic and territorial nature, has certainly facilitated the affirmation of populism at the global and this characteristic, combined with a legitimate distrust in traditional political forces even on the part of the electorates who do not like the populist turn, prevents us from thinking that in the short term, there can be a significant contraction in the appreciation of populist values. On the other hand, the opposite aspect is constituted by the capacity of mobilization of the anti-populist forces due precisely to the profound aversion aroused by people like Trump; this aspect, however, signals an intrinsic weakness that the traditional parties will have to overcome already in the immediate future: the inability to arouse consensus on their programmatic aspects, capable for the moment, of gaining even lower consensus than the opposition to populism, capable of to aggregate and bring back to the polls voters of even opposite ideas, such as center right united with the left. On this aspect, the need is highlighted that the leadership of the new American president is not limited to the United States, but can represent an element, on a global level, capable of pulling those progressive forces and that are part of the classic conservatives, which, while maintaining respective differences, come to be able to form a common front against populist ideology. In fact, the reflection must focus on the ability to remain current the causes that favored the development of populism, whose perpetrators are well present in both progressives and conservatives; their work has provided both evident reasons and substantial perceptions for the understandable growth of movements that advocate ideas capable of taking root in social classes tried by the crisis and left outside the productive process and the redistribution of wealth. The deception perpetrated on these sectors of society, unfortunately increasingly vast, has been to foment a struggle between the poor (often with immigration, certainly not regulated, in the crosshairs) capable of diverting attention from the creation of norms capable of favoring large capital to the detriment of the populist voters; we moved on to fighting the large financial agglomerations to encourage the increase in the concentration of wealth. Another aspect is the contempt for the values ​​of civil rights, which leads to an increasingly marked anti-democratic orientation in populist governments: this factor must become a strength in the ability to aggregate anti-populist sentiments, but alone it is not sufficient for a effective and efficient contrast if it is not combined with an improvement in widespread living conditions, both practically and at the perceptual level of the social classes that have embraced populism. Precisely for this reason, Biden's policy will have to be characterized by reforms capable of interrupting the liking for Trump, who nevertheless took 70 million votes, and, at the same time, influencing the political programs of other world leaders. The challenge of populism has only just begun.