Political

Moderates the world over need to fight the extreme Right and Left

Writing his latest Evening Standard column, and after Ted Cruz‘s victory in the Iowa caucuses, Nick Clegg says:

So in the end, it wasn’t The Donald but Ted Cruz who won. Cruz, the man who claims Obamacare is “the biggest job-killer” in the US, who will “build a wall that works” on the US border, who wants to carpet- bomb Syria until “sand can glow in the dark”, and who has called the Roe vs Wade ruling to legalise abortion a “dark anniversary”.

Perhaps one of Donald Trump’s most unexpected achievements is to make Cruz look mainstream…

The politics of identity, of us versus them, is on the rise. “Them” could be bankers, Islam, the establishment, Brussels, the English, the political class, immigrants or any number of other pantomime villains and scapegoats. Whoever your chosen bogeyman, a “straight-talking”, anti-establishment populist is railing against them and gaining traction.

As the political debate becomes increasingly shrill and polarised, what is lost is moderation, compromise and reason.

That final trio – moderation, compromise and reason – is very Nick Clegg. I fear it is not enough of a response.

The power of emotionally resonant political messages isn’t overcome by saying, ‘let just sit down and be reasonable’. It’s overcome by finding similarly powerful ways of framing our own messages.

Political messaging isn’t like lawyers putting a case before supreme court judges where rationality we would hope always wins out.

It’s messier, more complicated and more subtle than that. The emotional power of your message matters.

You can read Nick Clegg’s full piece here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.