Turkish elections show why Trump could win in 2024

He has used a series of show trials (some based on fact, others on pure fantasy) to eviscerate civil liberties. In the February earthquake, estimated 50,000 lives It caused twice as many casualties, a poor government response, and exposed the corruption of a system that emphasized a network of patrons over well-built buildings.

Under normal political expectations, Erdogan should have paid the political price of a disastrous election defeat. Not only did he survive, but he increased his vote share in some of the towns most affected by the earthquake and most neglected afterward.

“We love him,” the resident explained. economist. “For a call to prayer, for our homes, and for our scarves.”

This last sentence is eloquent not only because it conveys the importance of Islamism as the secret to President Erdogan’s success. This is an attack on James Carville’s narrow-minded American slogan, “Economy, Fool.” Actually, no. It is also God, traditions, values, identities, cultures, and the resentment that accompanies each. It’s just the bare worldly imagination that fails to realize that there are things people care about more than their paycheck.

There is also the issue of power. The classic liberal political tradition is based on suspicion of power. The illiberal tradition is based on that exaltation.

President Erdoğan built himself an aesthetically grotesque 1,100-room mansion as a tribune to Turkey’s common people. presidential palace at $615 million ($945 million). Far from scandalizing his supporters, it seems to have pleased them. There they see not signs of luxury or extravagance, but the importance of man and the movement to which they cling and submit.

All of this is a reminder that political signals are often transmitted on frequencies that are difficult for left-wing ears to hear, much less decipher.

After destroying the country’s economy and its institutions so utterly, one wonders how President Erdogan was re-elected because of how President Vladimir Putin has managed so much at home following the debacle in Ukraine. It is similar to wondering if it seems to maintain support for

Perhaps what some important people in ordinary Russians want, at least on a subconscious level, is not an easy victory. It is a test of unity.

So let me introduce you to another strong man in a palace in Palm Beach, Florida. In November, as I wrote, Donald Trump was convinced it was “finally over.”

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How can anyone but the meanest of supporters continue to support him after he again takes the Senate to the Republicans? Could this latest evidence of defeat be the last straw for believers who were promised a “great victory”?

stupid me The Trump movement is not built on the prospect of winning. It is built on a sense of belonging, being heard and seen. Being a nuisance to those you feel you despise, and to those you despise. of submission for representation. Victory or defeat, prosperity or misery, all the rest are details.