News Analysis
Roger Cohen, NYT 5/5/24
(with comparison to Sonoma politics by Fred Allebach 5/5/24)
Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?
Anti-immigration parties with fascist roots — and an uncertain commitment to democracy — are now mainstream.
Cohen points
Cell phone and social media are inherently polarizing
-everyone has a platform, the sheer volume of social noise is anxiety-provoking
-comments and analysis no longer as heavily filtered by editors
-ability to create social media echo chambers and cancel/ vilify alternative views
-tribal/ nationalistic tendencies magnified by technology
-trolls, aliases, and high volume of nasty, snotty comments create enmity
Far-right Nationalism: Trump, Netanyahu, Orban, Bolosonaro
-global vs national; a knowledge economy “somewhere” vs. rural rust belt “nowhere”
-plays off excesses of individual rights and actualization
-a mythic tribal/ national traditionalism is hoped for
-global economy, mechanization, AI etc. have resulted in major loss of decent paying jobs, alienating working class and pushing them Right bc Left is mealy mouthed and out of touch with labor roots
Frame a simple view of decadent urban elites
-modernization, individualism are assaults on “tradition”
-strict father morality and male dominance feels under attack
-look to idealized past and not future, a past where men rule and God justifies them
-vilify trajectory of individualism and individual rights, vilify gender rights, keep women down, anti-birth control
-put in new system of groupthink to counter post-War Western liberal consensus
-this is part of concerted pushback to New Deal, Great Society, 1960s counter culture, feminism, environmentalism, civil rights, post-War labor gains
-youth don’t know lessons of history, loss of context, history gets repeated by the ignorant
Aging populations put tremendous strain on social safety net
-demographic shift to aging First World populations
-aging Boomers et al don’t want immigrants to get a free ride but overlook benefit of immigrants to shrinking tax base and labor pool
-expel undocumented immigrants
What do we see in Sonoma as a reflection of these trends?
-demographic shift, Latino majority school district, white flight to private/ charter schools
-don’t expel immigrants but keep them in a noblesse oblige, indentured servitude
-“decadent suburban elites” are single family/ low density-zoned stasis protectors drinking wine, hot tubs, living the dream in a bubble
-xenophobia, draw bridge mentality, look to past segregeted social order not future, isolationism/ fantasy island hopes of dominant suburban class
-a claim that suburban values are those of “the community”, immigrants are not members
-a local “normalization of the right” under guise of pragmatism, a rightward shift of “business democrats”, the left is centered on environmental issues and national politics
-a trend to single party rule as potential working class opponents are socioeconomically excluded
-trend to local control of dominant class, urban growth boundary, Sonoma Mtn Community Services District, anti-Springs annexation, marginalizes immigrants and BIPOC residents
-a hyper-local media focused on elite, privileged issues with local elite cronyism
-social media echo chambers that cancel/ vilify alternative views
-a body politic where center left and center right are indistinguishable
-justification of “local control” suburban-values tribalism over the rule of law/ state housing laws
-strong pushback to idea of including immigrant political power in One Valley through annexation
-exclusive: rejection of including working class interests, neo-feudalism
-domination of local government and gaming rules and laws to favor traditional popwer in-groups
It wouldn’t be surprising that through lack of benefits, inclusion, and agency, that the local working class and immigrant cohort rejects liberal values as any salvation and shifts to a Trumpist/ nationalist right-wing allegiance. This right-ward shift to a past-looking social order is not inevitable but it will take active resistance to bring more democratic, progressive values to the table.
The landed class has money and power to field candidates to uphold the current order in Valley, City, and School District politics. Union and labor cohorts now strategically back green interests. Will need to get labor on side of local working class-interests in any political contests. Labor interests did not field a candidate in the recent 1st District Supervisor race. Labor does not seem to see any payday in sticking up for human rights if they have no pollical gain to make from it. Latino residents massively under-registered to vote.
Sonoma County is not as liberal as one might suspect from a deep blue Bay Area map, yet Blake Hooper came with just hundreds of votes of unseating David Rabbitt, and Sonoma City has had brief flurries of being more liberal/ progressive.
Is the Sonoma suburban power structure analogous to the far right? Not one-to-one but similar in the respect of using ideology to maintain the overall BIPOC community as an underclass. Local Sonoma elites have with an uncertain commitment to democracy, with an unabashed pursuit of political power to maintain a past idealized stasis. The exclusive Sonoma lifestyle puts local elites here in same position to working class interests as western democracies find themselves to the far right disenfranchised. This risks a working class shift to far-right values bc of lack of local powers that be to share the wealth. Indeed, 25+% of Latinos favor Trump.
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