You will, by now, be familiar with the argument: that Donald Trump’s triumph in the American presidential election represents a kind of social and political apocalypse. That his victory came at the hands of fundamentally irrational, bigoted, disgusting extreme right-wingers beyond the pale of civilised values. It is axiomatic that there can’t be any good reason behind voting for him, so it is assumed that 60 million Americans were duped by ‘fake news’ which must now be suppressed altogether.
In fact, the real ‘fake news’ was pumped out relentlessly by publications such as the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian and many other similar left-wing outlets which descended into hysterical denunciation of the voters’ choice. They serially distorted and misrepresented what Trump and his head of strategy, Stephen Bannon, had said, accusing them falsely of anti-Semitism and smearing them by association with the white supremacists who had leeched on to their campaign.
This Pavlovian reaction of demon-isation, character assassination and censor-ship, which also characterised the left’s reaction to the Brexit vote, is always caused by overwhelming fear. Of what are the left so afraid? Might their hysteria arise from their deepest nightmare: that they actually have much in common with those they consider the acme of right-wing evil?
Consider. Trump is a protectionist and against free trade. So is the far-left Democrat Bernie Sanders. So is Jeremy Corbyn. Trump is against globalisation and outsourcing jobs to cheaper markets. So is the British left. Labour, the trade unions and the Greens want to stop the dumping of Chinese steel; Unite has said major infrastructure projects should be tendered only to British firms.
Want another figure to hate? Take a bow, French National Front leader Marine Le Pen. She has attacked the ‘draconian policy of austerity’ that favours ‘globalised elites at the expense of the people’ and wants to nationalise foreign companies and banks.
Sound familiar? Thousands of left-wing activists marched against austerity outside last month’s Tory party conference, and Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell wants to nationalise all the banks, railways and utility companies.
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