Signs of populism losing sheen?

DURING the 2020 US presidential election campaign, a television crew interviewed an American citizen who was supposed to represent the “average voter” and asked him whether he would enjoy drinking beer with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

“Beer I enjoy drinking with my pals in the bar,” he replied. “For president I elect someone that I hope would be more qualified for the job than my buddy who, like me, knows nothing about nuclear strategy.” The populist wave that swept the public in the West in recent years and according to which your crazy uncle would have been more successful in leading the World War II landing in Normandy than General Dwight Eisenhower, amounted to a dangerous phenomenon. But now it may be getting worse: It’s starting to bore us.

It was possible to understand how, in the aftermath of the global financial collapse in 2008 and a series of political corruption scandals, not to mention the more recent failed responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, many voters in Western democratic countries lost their confidence in the politicians who had promised them social stability and economic prosperity.