Doug Ford is a Dangerous Right-Wing Populist
Populism is a political strategy used by charismatic leaders who consolidate support and power by claiming to represent "the people" against "the elites" and other imagined villains. Trading mainly in simplistic, folksy slogans that reinforce preconceptions and prejudices and shift blame outwards, populists undercut the truth by spreading appealing lies in down-to-earth language.
When confronted with facts that contradict their claims, populists go on the attack against all challengers, projecting furiously by accusing their critics of lying and pushing a hidden agenda. Their aggression and abuse is presented as a willingness to "tell it like it is".
All politicians tend to spin the facts to suit their interests, but populists challenge the idea that there is a shared repository of facts we can all agree on. In doing so, they begin to systematically break down the norms and restraints governing elected politicians in a liberal democracy, while at the same time erecting firewalls to protect themselves from democratic accountability.
Today, after three decades of neoliberal government policies that have tended to concentrate wealth in the hands of the already-affluent while leaving middle- and lower-income citizens further and further behind, populists have a rich well of resentment and cynicism to draw upon.
But instead of championing meaningful changes that will actually improve people's lives, populists channel and redirect the anger and resentment of their followers against a grab-bag of cartoon villains while consolidating power for themselves and their friends.
Populists are dangerous because they use their popularity as a cudgel to attack and scapegoat their enemies, accusing those enemies of engaging in shadowy conspiracies to undermine and betray "regular folks".
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