In a shocking upset, a populist firebrand has reclaimed the world’s most powerful office. Donald Trump’s 2024 victory is just the latest in a drumbeat of far-right electoral wins that began over a decade ago with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and India’s Narendra Modi. From Brazil to the Philippines, a “disaster nationalism” is on the march, exploiting economic misery to push a disruptive agenda.
For many observers, the economy is the obvious culprit. The familiar refrain goes: it’s the left-behind lashing out, the losers of globalization seeking scapegoats. But the true roots of the far-right surge run deeper than pocketbook woes.
Beyond Bread and Butter: The Emotional Roots of Backlash
While economic pain is real, with prices soaring and debt looming, it alone can’t explain the global right-wing turn. Voting behavior studies show that pure economic self-interest is a surprisingly weak predictor of political choices. The economy matters, but more as a stage on which anxieties play out than as a simple quality-of-life index.
Moreover, the far right isn’t a revolt of the poorest of the poor. From the U.S. to India, it relies on middle-class and affluent voters, even as it nets some discontented workers. Its economic program, focused on regressive tax cuts and welfare slashing, offers little to those truly left behind.
The Politics of Existential Revenge
So what’s the draw? According to close sources, today’s far right “replaces real disasters with imaginary disasters.” Rather than confronting complex injustices, it vilifies scapegoats – migrants, “communist” elites, satanic cabals. A “politics of existential revenge” that channels anxiety into retribution against those seen as threats to social hierarchies.
Instead of opposing injustice, they vilify those who threaten social hierarchies like class, race and gender. Instead of confronting systems, they give you enemies you can kill.
This vengeful turn has real-world consequences. Hate crimes and acts of collective violence like riots and “lone wolf” attacks surge in its wake. But rather than being discredited by the unrest, the far right is galvanized. Trump and Bolsonaro’s close calls in 2020 and 2022 rode waves of street clashes and vigilante violence.
Dismantling the Center
Undeniably, addressing economic grievances is vital. But disrupting the centrist status quo with bold new visions is just as key. The Harris campaign’s vague gestures toward “joy” fell flat absent a genuine populist economic agenda to counter the right’s visceral appeal.
More than tinkering around the policy margins, breaking the global far-right fever will require a new sort of rupture. One that channels discontent into building a more just, humane and sustainable order. Without such a positive counterweight, the abyss of disaster nationalism threatens to swallow us whole.
