The tide of populism sweeping the globe has lead many to believe there has been a dramatic shift in the world’s political landscape. But whilst 2016 has undoubtedly been full of surprising events that have disrupted the ‘old world order’, these ’new’ forces of nationalism are not the novelty they seem to be.
The Winds of Change 2.0
It was Harold Macmillan, in his famous address to the South African Parliament, who said:
“The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of nation all consciousness is a political fact.”
This statement, made back in 1960 and referring to the the growing nationalism across the colonies, could be equally applied to the seismic political changes occurring across Europe now. Nationalism has always been a powerful insurgent force – and the establishment has always found it difficult to oppress.
The Brexit vote was, in many ways, a renaissance of British nationalism; however, the similarity ends there. Whilst supporters of Brexit and Mr Farage labelled June 23rd as ‘Our Independence Day’, our historic vote to Leave the European Union can hardly be compared to the struggle of former colonies brutally oppressed by Empire.
Indeed, some saw a vote for Brexit as a vote for ‘freedom’; many Brits were drawn in by the idea of ‘taking back the power’ from the unelected bigwigs of the European Parliament. But we have had such an opportunity before, and unemphatically turned it down when faced with the chance to vote to change our disproportionate electoral system back in the 2011 referendum. If the British people are truly concerned with bettering our democracy, surely a vote for AV would prove the most logical conclusion?
When a country is threatened, as Britain has been recently by religious extremism and terrorist attacks, it is easy for its population to withdraw in to itself and become mistrustful of other nations. It kickstarts a yearning for the age of ‘Great’ Britain, of winning wars and beating enemies. Unfortunately, with such such senses of nostalgia comes a trend of blotting out of certain painful tenets of our history – mistakes that we should be striving to learn from.
When it comes to Brexit, we must hope that Theresa May’s vision of post-Europe Britain does not have roots within the dangerous nostalgic sense of the Britain that ‘was’.
Trumpism and The American Dream
In America, this sense of nostalgia has proved to be just as strong. Despite Mr Trump’s lack of political experience, his call to “Make America Great Again” appealed the “silent majority” of Americans who have been left behind by the forces of liberal progressive politics and haven’t felt the effects of economic recovery.
Like Brexit, the people voted for Trump under the illusion that they were voting against the old order and establishment and the broken system of Washington Politics. Ironically, however, it is unlikely that Trump – the billionaire who started his career from “a small loan of a million dollars” – truly signifies any real change.
In the US, we can only hope that Trump’s victory over the first female presidential candidate does not overshadow that momentous event eight years ago, in which the American citizens voted in their first African-American president.