“It’s the economy, stupid.” That was the phrase attributed to Democratic strategist James Carville, who helped mastermind Bill Clinton‘s unlikely win over Republican incumbent George HW Bush in 1992. Whatever the candidates’ other achievements might be, people would, in the end vote with their wallets. As a belief it’s far, far deeper than 1992. The central case of all the heirs of the enlightenment, both of Right and Left was that humans are essentially rational animals, who would consider their immediate economic interests above all else.
Just how wrong that might be is demonstrated in this eye-opening piece from Deepak Bhargava, Sharzad Sams, and Harry Hanbury from Democracy, which we earnestly entreat you to read. Far from us to steal the authors’ thunder. But by careful reasoning they tease out an entirely new factor which influences the political choice which people make. For want of a better word, they call it “unhappiness“. We’ll let them explain what they think that is. But here’s their killer quote
The causes of rising unhappiness are complex, but they surely have roots in the failures of a neoliberal economic regime that has fostered insecurity, isolation, anxiety, and fear……loneliness and social isolation are major drivers of unhappiness. We are experiencing a crisis of what French sociologist Émile Durkheim called “anomie,” or normlessness, arising from the dizzying pace of social, economic, political, and technological change in our times and the weakening of institutions that foster social cohesion.
Who is more likely to vote for populist parties than angry frightened men, on their way down in the world, who above all need someone to blame. Authoritarians, who l provide quick and easy answers, and all times offer a diabolical other to hate can always tell a better story than the careful, complicated reforms of the democrats. If Biden were judged on his economic record. he would have been romping the polls since 2022. But he is not; and the rest of us must learn to live with the consequences of his defeat, for however much life we have left. Unless we find ways to tell our story, and soon, that may not be very long.
We found the link to the Democracy piece in a Guardian article from the admirable Rafael Behr [2], in which he discourses on the relevance of the trope in a UK context
[1]https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-death-of-deliverism/
#biden #trump #unhappiness #prosperity #democracy #populism
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