MY COUNTRY FIRST!!!- The rise in 'Leftism'

" It's Not Just Trump: A Toxic Right-Wing Nationalism Is Rising Across the Planet", proclaimed Alfred McCoy of AlterNet in April. The rise of the so called 'Radical' wing of the right has been covered and critiqued by the media through the actions of the maverick Trump, the controversial Brexit vote and the influence of 'Neo liberal' politicians such as Le Pen in Europe. Yet the ascent of the radical left has been received with far less controversy and criticism from the media, with many jumping on its bandwagon. In July the self-confessed socialist, Jeremy Corbyn, was just 2,227 votes away from having the chance to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. What should be most worrying for Conservatives is that the younger generations have embraced these politicians, with Bernie Sanders earning more votes from those under 30 than Trump and Clinton combined in the primaries, and Corbyn earning 67% of 18-24 year old votes according to ICM polls.

The overwhelming support can be put down to numerous factors. One of the most notable though is that young people want to make a difference in society and want a cause to fight for, which can be seen throughout history through their vocal support of the civil rights movement, gay rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. Due to the modern day West being the most tolerant and forward society ever to have existed, leftist politicians have had to adapt to pander to the youth through presenting their ideology and policies as being combative to so called 'injustices' like income inequality, the 'wealthy elite' and capitalism. In 2008 Obama based his campaign solely on the idea of 'Hope' - it was a bit wishy washy as to why people would need hope in one the fairest countries in history, and one which has tremendous wage mobility and equal rights for all. Despite this, the evocative language attracted and enticed millions to vote for him. Sanders utilized this through his slogan ' A future to believe in', implying that the present is somehow awful. Young people loved it though, as Sanders told them all that 'a political revolution is coming' and that he was 'not for sale'. This contrasted to Hillary Clinton, whose defeat can be put down to her bland and generic campaign which utilized the mediocre slogan of 'Stronger Together'.

The support of the radical left can also be attributed to their immoral obsession with character attacks and personal bigotry towards conservatives and centrists. Those on the right on the other hand (barring Trump), tend to argue against leftists based on the efficiency and practicality of their policies, as opposed to the morality of them. The argument from morality almost always topples the efficiency argument because individuals don’t care if a policy works, but rather focus on whether it makes them feel morally superior to those 'racist', 'bigoted' and 'elitist' conservatives. Obama utilized this in 2012 against Romney. Obama's campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said that Romney thought that 'lying is a virtue' and Priorities USA, the Super-PAC backing Obama, ran an advert in which a steel worker claims that Romney played a part in the death of his wife because of Romney's company, Bain Capital, closing a factory. Romney, on the other hand, remained civil throughout the campaign and focused on his policies. Unfortunately, no matter how good his tax plan was or how brilliant his plans to solve healthcare's issues regarding pre-existing conditions were, he was doomed to lose a large number of voters, due to their perception of him as an immoral individual, which was forged by the Democrats.

To fight this rise from the left, Conservatives will need to fight fire with fire. Trump successfully did this when he made his 'brand' of Conservatism into a movement with the now cult like slogan 'Make America Great Again' being his banner. Conservatism needs a re-branding to promote itself as not just a set of policies but as an actual means, and as a community to fight the evils of socialism, communism and leftist social policy. As well as this, those on the right need to fight back against character attacks; as senator Rand Paul said, 'I never start a fight, but I'm happy to finish a fight'. Trump and Romney are perfect examples of how Republicans are getting it wrong - Trump's issue is that he often starts the fight and often perceives criticism as someone else starting a fight. Romney got it wrong when he didn’t fight back hard enough when he was accused of killing the steel worker's wife. His response should have been that the Democrats were immoral for accusing him of it; instead he argued that his policies would have prevented her death, a rather lackluster response.

There has been an undeniably large shift to extreme left politics by millennials, and Conservatives need to wake up and realize that it isn't going to just go away by itself (until the left's socialist policies are put into practice and millions suffer). We as Conservatives should always hold the moral high ground over the left but we could come to regret it if we don’t start fighting back.

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