Centrism’s failures paved the way for Trump’s return

WE have a winner, then: Donald J Trump is heading back to the White House. For weeks, we’ve been told that it was the most unpredictable race in recent times, I suspect more as an act of denial and self-comforting than any genuine reflection of political reality. The post-match analysis has been even worse. A constant refrain, often in incredulous intonations from allegedly neutral news broadcasters, has been how Trump won “Latino” men over to his cause. There’s even been the odd on-screen interview with African Americans who voted for him in an attempt to share the pundit’s liberal shock. It’s all there if you want to see it. From the inherent racism in the idea that, in a land overwhelmingly occupied by people who are migrants or descended from willing or unwilling migrants, any ethnic grouping should vote en bloc for any party or policy to sheer levels of denial of realpolitik from the people making a good living out of claiming to espouse it in their little post-ideology world. I made the mistake of posting something on X (formerly Twitter) in the wake of the farce. “This is where centrism takes you,” I said, “Every time.” It took off a bit, finding a great deal of sympathy out there, but the push-back was far more interesting. A Scottish centrist commentator told me I was wrong. Instead, without any hint of irony, he told me the issue instead was the “cul-de-sac of post-modern identity politics pushed by the far left.” Funny thing is, how identity politics has come to dominate the landscape in recent years has undoubtedly given the far-right something to grab and run with, but what is centrism if it is not “post-modern identity politics,” really? Even if centrism’s proponents now want to rail against the form of identity politics they blame for everything from Brexit to Trump, they fail to even begin to engage with the idea that it was their explicit policy over the last 30 years to remove class from politics — the “end of history,” the “third way,” and all that mince ... The old politics of left and right is dead, I was told. We all have a range of views, you see, and we shouldn’t try to pigeonhole, they tell us — before, in the next breath, demanding all “Latinos” vote Democrat. We’re all individuals ... unless you are part of an ethnic minority to be taken for granted as a “base,” only to be ignored as they triangulate themselves over a cliff again. In a similar fashion, the only time centrists truly engage with the concept of the working class is to pander to the prejudices they project on us before denying all responsibility and going on to expect our vote anyway on the basis we “have nowhere else to go.” The transformation of liberation politics into identity politics is the apex of this mindset, not its opposite. Identity matters, and the oppressed of this world, at the very least, deserve every bit of space, support, and comradeship they want from those of us who do enjoy levels of privilege, but without any measure of class, there will be no liberation, only a renewed subjugation. If the centre can’t bring itself to engage with this, the far-right is only too happy to oblige with the substitution of class for the “strong man.” Speaking of which, the owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk, has had his role to play, tweaking its algorithms to broaden hate, misogyny and abuse on a site already rampant with it. Musk's legion of fans on there hail him as a “genius,” joined by the man he calls a genius, the president-elect. Being the world’s richest man tends to come with invitations to parties, and he was an eager guest on Trump’s travels across the US, looking on as the orange hulk’s speeches wandered off into spectacular tangents in town after town. I think Musk has one thing right: Trump is a genius. After all, it must take some sort of otherworldly talent to start out with an inherited real-estate empire in 1970s New York City and, in just a matter of five decades, have exactly the wealth you started with. A capitalist who isn’t actually very good at capitalism, a repeated bankrupt hailed as a genius businessman, a man held liable for sexual assault backed by the evangelical churches. It’s too easy to take a pop, and in many ways, he seems to gain in strength the more the blows fly, but that should never be an excuse not to call him out. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has had an excruciating couple of days fielding questions about derogatory comments he made about Trump in the recent past. Enjoyable as that has been to see, it has also been interesting.In a pattern becoming familiar with this new Labour government, he all but laughs it off and fails to engage with it in any way, just as colleagues had done when they faced challenges over their free Taylor Swift tickets. He neither owns, nor disowns, just shrugs his shoulders, smiles, and tells us all about what a gracious and attentive host Trump was when he and Keir Starmer had dinner with him a few months back. No guts, but no judgement either, just an open display of the sheer vacuousness of his worldview. The leader of Scotland’s government, the SNP’s John Swinney, was marginally less craven, congratulating Trump on his election and talking about “shared values” between the respective nations. On his knees, rather than prostrate on the floor; diplomatic, I suppose. The Scottish Greens, however, took a more robust approach, with Patrick Harvie calling Trump’s election “sickening,” and his leadership partner Lorna Slater calling it a “dark day” for women, Ukraine, Gaza and our planet. Trump’s rampant misogyny, the apparent willingness to give the Israeli government a free hand in Gaza and his climate change denial all justify this statement. The comment on Ukraine stood out, however, as it did when Harvie raised it in the context of a question in Holyrood on climate and Trump’s victory. The rumour has long been that Trump is a Putin stooge. This may or may not be true, but Trump has made clear his intention to scale back US support for the war and push the sides towards renewed talks. Even broken clocks are right twice a day. An ongoing war of attrition will do nothing other than wipe out a generation in both nations, but the kind of paths to escalation presently backed by most of Europe as well as the US and Nato only end one way. Perhaps the Green position here and across Europe is part of a bizarre accelerationist strategy to fast-forward climate change through a thermonuclear holocaust and into a nuclear winter? No, far more likely they have succumbed to the disease that has infected so many other liberal parties here and abroad in recent years, leaving them wandering, homeless, before finally pandering their way in to hunker neath a national flag and shelter from this world’s contradictions. Using Ukraine to oppose Trump is just one of those many contradictions, as it enables him and tyrants like him around the world. We and our politicians have a choice: cower under your Union Jack or saltire duvet, sending young people to their deaths while the far-right run riot at home, or step out into the material world with the people abandoned by machine politics and set our sights on something better. Plant the flag of class, and don’t hide behind it either. Step forward, never a step back. Accepting the world as it is gets us nowhere. The point, after all, is to change it. USTrumpKamala HarrisCentrism Features MATT KERR argues that Establishment politics’ rejection of class analysis and embrace of identity politics without liberation created perfect conditions for a resurgent right wing Aw That Article Is old Issue Saturday, November 9, 2024 Embedded media node Robin Galbraith walks near the entrance as Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. Rating: No ratingRequires subscription: News grade NormalPaywall exclude: 0Article footer image: