Donald Trump's return to the White House shows that liberal democracy has failed. It proved unable to provide a coherent structure to the post postwar era.

One era is coming to an end and a new one is beginning. Nothing marks this shift as clearly as the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president of the United States. The West has lost its dominance and the shared foundation of values, which has been crumbling for some time. It is now collapsing. There are tensions everywhere – between countries and within societies. The right wing is on the rise in Italy, France and Germany. The West as a bloc of liberal democracies no longer exists.

The Western world blossomed after 1945, a reaction to a pair of totalitarian systems: National Socialism and Stalinism. Hitler’s Reich served as a reminder that such a catastrophe must not be repeated. And the Soviet empire behind the Iron Curtain, while also seen as a threat, emboldened Western countries to invest in a shining counter-model: social and liberal democracy.

Prosperity for all

The system’s strength was its concern for people, for the individual. Prosperity for all through social equality, more rights for women, the absence of authoritarian impositions by the state: All of this made the West attractive in the decades that followed World War II. Those who lived in the West enjoyed their freedoms and their high standard of living. A broad center developed, the pillar of liberal democracy.

The age of totalitarian ideologies, which were essentially political religions, was followed by a phase of rationality, of scientifically based reason. Politics was pursued with the utmost solemnity, because so much was at stake: preventing the return of fascism and standing up to the Soviet Union.

Western countries joined forces in NATO. Individual countries were less important than the alliance as a whole. National borders became permeable, disappearing completely in some cases. Internationalization, the European Union, citizen of the world: It was, despite a few shortcomings, a good era. Unfortunately, it is now over.

How could that which began so promisingly now end with Donald Trump, a man who disrupts the system and whose policies are rooted in lunacy?

The initial steps forward in liberal democracies were social advances. But at some point, the social questions were considered to have been largely resolved and the era of social democracy came to an end. The majority of society, after all, was doing well. Progressive politics shifted to fresh challenges: doing away with patriarchy and establishing new freedoms for minorities – important projects to be sure.

But this shift was not managed well. Center-left politicians in particular – the Democrats in the U.S. and the Greens in Germany, for example – paid too little attention to the fact that the issue of equity, that concerns of social decline, don’t simply vanish when the general level of prosperity is high. The resulting impression was that center-left parties did too little for workers, for the center of society. The high cost of living is now seen as one of the most important reasons for Trump’s victory.

Beyond that, governments were unable to establish the fight against climate change early on as a sensible, self-evident project. Hesitation, equivocation and dawdling continued for so long that the challenge grew too large, to the point that many people began fearing for the lives they had grown used to. Trump was able to profit from that as well, by denying the facts.

Liberal democrats also underestimated just how important the concept of nation continues to be. When the Soviet Union disappeared, the West lost its most important source of cohesion. Without the pressure to stay together, many began focusing more intently on their own interests. No longer was the protection of the West in its entirety the focus, but one’s own country. Immigrants were increasingly seen as a threat. This shift, too, was given too little attention by liberal democracies. An advantage for Trump.

A lack of earnestness

The fear of war and authoritarian rule initially made it easy for those in government to hold societies in Western countries together. When this bond dissolved, liberal democrats failed to provide a coherent structure to the post postwar era. Some simply lacked the requisite earnestness, as exemplified by the embarrassing disintegration of Germany’s governing coalition in these difficult times. They lost a large part of society, to the point that many voters feel better represented by authoritarian voices. What a tragedy.

The resuscitation of the West can only be successful if we finally understand that almost all issues are also social issues, whether it be economic policy, migration policy or climate policy. Rational politics remains the correct course of action. But it absolutely must have a heart.

(Source: Spiegel International)