Bulgarians are at a crossroads. The disintegration of our common life presents us with the choice of calling in someone like Putin to stop the strife, or we can stop it ourselves by supporting reasonable and educated politicians in elections.
According to the great philosopher Karl Popper, democracy has one main advantage: that power changes "without cruelty". In fact, democracy has at least one more important advantage over all the alternatives: that when a social group goes too far with radicalism, the whole system is rearranged around more moderate values and approaches. Unlike non-democratic regimes, which become increasingly extreme once they reach a certain point of radicalization.
Reversal of political sentiment on a global scale
In recent years, countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, Poland and even, to some extent, Turkey and Italy have been saved through such an arrangement. In two consecutive European Parliament votes, the right-wing radicals failed to take power as they had hoped. In recent weeks, this process has intensified - to the extent that it is beginning to turn political sentiments on a global scale.
I mean, of course, what happened in the elections in Great Britain and in France and, above all, what is currently happening in the United States.
In France, President Macron has managed to convince his countrymen that the time has come to vote en masse to counter the rise of the far right, which became visible during the last European Parliament elections. In defense of the democratic French Republic, 67 percent of voters came out, compared to 47 percent in 2022. Such massive voting has not been seen in France since the historic 1981 presidential election won by the later legendary socialist Francois Mitterrand. This year's parliamentary elections, instead of sealing the continued triumph of the pro-Putin extreme right, resulted in a broad left front victory and the preservation of strong positions for the Macronist center and the traditional republican right. The extreme left and right radicals, although participating in the respective coalitions, found themselves in the niches of big politics. And the centrist Macron suddenly turned out to be the most insightful French politician, quickly catching up to the scale of his great predecessors such as the already mentioned Mitterrand or Charles de Gaulle.
The British electorate has met a succession of helpless and increasingly radical Conservative governments with a Labor majority not seen in decades. The winning party is led by a leader who is far more moderate and accommodating than both his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn and leading figures in the Conservative Party. It was this moderation that attracted Britons, giving Starmer the support of a wide range of voters on the left, right and centre. Tired of years of fruitless opposition, the British voted for a program that was much closer to that of the Conservative Edward Heath of 1970 than to any of the more radical Labor programs since then. Already in the first days of his administration, Starmer began to implement policies aimed at overcoming the sharp contradictions in British society, including on the subject of the "European Union". On the other side of the political barricade, the Conservative Party has also suddenly "softened", replacing its until recently radical and adversarial rhetoric with moderate and inclusive talk not heard for at least two decades.
Both French and British societies have abandoned their radical, seditious, and perpetually ill-tempered politicians to place in power figures much more closely in keeping with the character of liberal democracy itself: men unmalicious but resolute; agreeable but with distinct convictions; peaceful, but clearly aware of the need for the world of democracy to be able to defend itself with firm force against its enemies.
Those days, judging by the reactions in and around the Democratic Party, a similar process started in the USA. Joe Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, as well as the naming of Kamala Harris as his successor in that race, has led to a euphoria not seen among Americans since the days of early Barack Obama. Enthusiasm, especially in politics, always attracts. And it attracts especially when, in the previous period, politics was dominated by strife, backbiting, shouting, divisions and hatred.
This new American enthusiasm is just gaining momentum; it will continue to grow and help the smiling Harris, 59, sweep the cantankerous 78-year-old Donald Trump to the polls. The whole world will breathe a sigh of relief as such an outcome will restore the role of the US as the pillar of security and the hope of democratic people around the world.
Before the dictator's hour strikes
People are built in such a way that they constantly argue with each other. That's why we invented democratic politics: so that we can argue over rules (without bickering, for example) in order to eventually come to a common understanding of the way forward. But humans are also wired to live together: we are group animals. Turning disputes into merciless battles leads to radicalization, which in turn leads to the disintegration of the possibility of living together. At some stage in such decay, if allowed to proceed unhindered, people come to demand that someone come along, take all the power, and tame things. This is how dictatorships are born. However, where democracy has deeper roots, people come together and decide to restore common life before the dictator's hour strikes.
We observe exactly this in France, Great Britain and the USA - in the countries that gave birth to and shaped modern politics and economics, and in general, modernity as such. This role of theirs ensures that the processes that started in them will spread all over the globe. Existing dictators will bow down, and quite a few would-be dictators will not reach for power. Elsewhere, societies tired of long opposition and hatred will find within themselves the strength to do as the French, British and Americans did.
Bulgarians are right at this crossroads. The continuing opposition and the breakdown of common life, fueled by hatred of the modern world and the rise of anti-democratic sentiments, puts us before the choice - to call someone like Putin to stop the discord; or we ourselves can stop the discord by supporting reasonable, educated, respectful and agreeable politicians with huge majorities in the elections.
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This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial team and of DV as a whole.