The Rise of Left Wing Populism

Seeing the rise of democratic socialism in the United States I am reminded of a statement I made in a post in 2017.

"In democracies there is usually a pendulum effect in politics.  Society will move from one end of the political spectrum to the next and back again several times within the lifetime of one individual.  As well, if that pendulum swings a great distance in one direction it will swing a similar distance in the other direction once that swing begins. So right now the pendulum has swung far to the right, which makes it virtually guaranteed that it will swing a similar distance to the left once society begins to move in that direction.  Right wing extremism will be replaced with left wing extremism.

For those of us in the political centre the coming years will be very uncomfortable. We will be just as leary of the left wing Donald Trump as the current right wing Donald Trump. We will be just as uncomfortable with the left wing Stephen Harper as we were with the original."

The Republican Party in the United States failed miserably to reign in the Tea Party movement. That lead directly to its morphing into MAGA. There is a direct line between them.

Now the Democratic Party is having its tea party moment. Like the original it will be nothing but an insurgency within the Party at first but it will grow. Especially since the establishment Democrats and Republicans will find common cause after November on many issues that will prevent the social democrats from actually enacting real change.

That will inevitably lead to another Republican victory down the road and they will decide they no longer need to work with the Democrats, which will lead to the further radicalization in the Democratic Party. 

So buckle up, we are just seeing the beginning of the swing of that pendulum. It will swing further and it will not stop in the centre or even near it. My only question is what these new left-wing extremists will call themselves. MAGA is taken.