United States | News & Politics

It's because of the reality of populism, which is based in discontent of the status quo of neoliberal economics that have made wages stagnant and cost of living high. People are feeling squeezed, we can't afford housing or education, even groceries are getting too expensive.

Right-wing populism takes advantage of that by scapegoating marginalized groups as the "cause" those issues on tuch as immigrants and marginalized people. It recognizes the material problems people face, but blames them on immigrants or lgbt+ or communists ect. That scapegoat is wielded to further fascist policies as we are currently seeing, but of course doesn't actually address any real root cause.

The only way to seriously combat right-wing populism is with left-wing populism (as in leftist, not liberal like the Democratic Party). Left-wing populism addresses the same systemic issues that are causing the material harm. However, it actually addresses the root cause of these issues with policies that improve people's material conditions. That would include public healthcare, public housing, public infrastructure, worker protections, high taxes on the rich, ect.

The issue (for corporate donors and the billionaire class) is that those solutions hurt the bottom line of private businesses, which are the donor class of the Democratic (and Republican) Party. They would require a redistribution of wealth and a shift towards public services. Which is of course, diametrically opposed to the capital interest of ever increasing profit accumulation