America is on a precipice and many are blind to it
America is at a precipice many seem to ignore. While Austria dodged falling in, the Philippines and Israel have. It is not too late to prevent disaster. Are you doing your part?
Have you ever heard of Rodrigo Duterte? If you haven’t you should. Everyone in America should. He is the new president of the Philippines. Duterte is referred to as Asia’s Donald Trump. Duterte promotes violence, misogyny, and much more in his rhetoric just like Trump. The Philippines is in for a long six years.
Austria averted the fall into its own precipice by narrowly defeating Norbert Hofer. Israel elected an even more Right Wing government.
Why should these two examples concern most of us in America? Because there is a Right Wing popular trend circling the world based on the discontent caused by policies promoted by the Right Wing. Unfortunately, those that have created the problem are effectively attaching the worldwide economic problems they have created onto progressives.
Progressives are generally ineffective in calling out barefaced lies. Instead of getting aggressive and speaking to the hearts of Americans thy devolve into fact and figures. Instead of stating absolutes that touch the heart, (e.g., the Right Wing ideology is literally killing Americans, etc.) they waffle.
Salon’s Brogan Morris excellent article titled “What just happened in Austria should be a wake-up call for American voters” is a must read. He wrote the following.
It can no longer be denied that there’s something in the air. Trump and Hofer aren’t exceptions, but two individuals representing a global shift to the right. Not only in Europe, where UKIP (Britain), Front National (France), the AfD (Germany), Party of Freedom (the Netherlands) and the SVP (Switzerland) are all steadily surging. Israel just elected the most right-wing government in its history; two weeks ago the people of the Philippines made Rodrigo Duterte, known as “the Asian Donald Trump,” their president; even famously left-leaning South America has jolted rightward, putting an end to its so-called Pink Tide. The whole world, so desperate in these unstable times, is developing a taste for right-wing politics. America is no exception.
Later in the article, he states the following.
Der Spiegel‘s definitive article from early in the year, ‘Donald Trump Is the World’s Most Dangerous Man,’ reads: “his candidacy ceased to be amusing long ago. Trump’s demands are too extreme for that, and his view of the world and humanity too dangerous…Some polls show that Trump even stands a realistic chance of winning the White House in a possible face-off with Hillary Clinton.” This was written back in February, before any votes had even been cast, and still at no point do we appear to have come round to heeding the message. Why, exactly, are we still laughing?
He concludes with the following.
Perhaps what just very nearly happened in Austria is the wakeup call we need. Austria is not just any European country. Small it may be, but there’s significance in a far-right president almost taking power there. This is the birthplace of fascism, Hitler’s own country of origin; a state which was happily annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, and was comfortably part of the Third Reich until its downfall seven years later. The Austrian people will understand better than most the dangers of the far-right. Some who lived through it are still alive there today. And despite that, the Austrian people just almost handed their country over to a man promising to make life better by punishing minorities and the marginalized. If it could happen there, it could happen anywhere. And America is no exception.
I hope Americans will heed this warning. It is imperative that we all wake-up.