Let me sum up what I think you're saying. In essence, then, what you see is extremist (puritanical) elements of both wings who have taken over the stump, rendering rational, evidence-based political debate less meaningful or important to choice-making by voters and for decision-making (read: resource allocation) by elected officials alike. And this is perhaps bound to happen when the fabric between classes -- meaning the spread of income inequality as I see it -- becomes especially torn; I. E. The spread is especially wide. You are trying to look rationally at WHY Trump was elected and what underlying issues politicians of all stripes should be solving and the message that his election sends rather than the instrument of that message; I. E. Trump.
That's essentially it yes. I think most of Trump, Brexit, and also Black Lives Matter and fringe left groups are all a response to economic and political inequality rather than the somewhat screeching world views that are getting belted out from all corners, deafening the populace. The "have-nots" all seem to be turning on each other and rather than looking at billionaires like Trump and bankers like Farage as the enemy, we're embracing them and their rhetoric.
Whichever way you look at it, it is undeniable that both Brexit and Trump struck a chord with millions of people. Calling Trump a demagogue cult figure or all of his supporters idiot racists is not only patronising to those people but also is pointless simplification that achieves nothing. I thought Trump would lose and lose heavily. I thought UKIP would be a nothing party in the last elections and Lab/Lib coalition would win. I thought Brexit was an impossibility. I thought all of these things because the media I consumed and the people I listened to in my friend group also all thought those things and when I saw contradictory opinions to this on places like Bluemoon, I wrote them off as morons or secretly racist trolls. I lived in a bubble of ignorance and even worse than this, had no idea I lived in a bubble of ignorance.
This isn't where I want to live; the truth and reality are important to me and I've recognised my impression of the views of the nations were very out of whack with the views of the nation. Due to my federalist globalist views, it's pretty common that where I think we should be politically is not where we are but we're also in a different place for where I thought we were. Social media and the mainstream media presented me with a reality that was undeniably false.
The only way I know how to determine truth is through evidence, critical analysis and starting with a non-biased perspective wherever possible. As a member of Labour, I'd like us to win an election and continue all of the good things that Labour is known for (and maybe do less of the bad things). I don't know how to achieve that when we don't understand the country, the world, or how it is changing around us. On how we stop playing the "everybody is a bigot" card and start listening to people that we've ignored and insulted for 20 years. Trump is a lightning rod of this change and understanding what it is that he is doing, what it is that is appealing and what it is that the rest of the Government are doing in opposition to it is important information in that discovery. What happens in the States invariably makes its way across the Atlantic 5+ years later. I don't think Farage is that change and think we have our own Trump to come.
For 20 years I've preached inclusion and excluded people who hold opinions that I built into racism that was never there. Once that was eliminated post-Brexit and I started fact checking things that I'd never fact checked before, I found that the world looked a bit more like those views than it first appeared. Not totally of course, their views are still in opposition to mine, but at least the logic started to make sense if I did still disagree which is a step forward. Racists exist and support Brexit, of course they do. But lots of people who aren't racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic or nationalists also support Brexit and it would be nice if we figured out a way to cater towards them within the confines of liberal democracy.
And this all sums up my central core belief - fair and democratic elections can never be wrong. The democratic experiment that started in the US and France replaced the monarchist/imperial systems of Europe and did so a shockingly short time ago really. It was only about 100 years that most of Europe still had monarchs and had them as de jure rather than just de facto rulers. We're a less stable social system than we really give ourselves credit for - and yet democracy has saved the day on numerous occasions. In the Nuclear Age could we see the conquest driven Old World Emperors or Kings restraining themselves to ensure that type of peace like Kennedy and Khrushchev did? I don't know, it feels not.
The system is right and it works. When a program that you know to have good logic inside produces surprising results, you examine the inputs and outputs - you don't call it names and claim it's a racist powermad dictator. That's where I'm at politically and mentally. I don't understand the situation in front of me and don't think any of the answers masquerading as insults that I'm given are satisfactory. I do feel however that listening more and giving people a good faith chance to explain situations has helped rather than demonoising them at every step.
