
We live in the strange twilight of the post-War era. Modern narratives are breaking down. Paradoxes abound where secure convictions once reigned.
Liberals often affirmed, for example, that history always flows inexorably leftward. Today, the left is in decline worldwide, facing a dismal future. Others said traditional ways and certainties were destined to fade away. Today, conservativism is on the rise as those supposedly waning ideas are increasingly popular.
We have reached a startling state of affairs where the political poles are reversed. Rightist groups are becoming conservative workers’ parties while the left coddles rich pseudo-elites and academics.
How We Got Here
Perhaps even more mystifying is how we got to this point. Each side followed a different strategy.
The left is in a dismal state because its activists made the mistake of doubling down on its unpopular and woke agendas, upsetting voters. The left has lost traction because it insists upon being true to itself.
The right has advanced by attacking the left’s absurd agendas with great effect. However, it has made the mistake of abandoning many of its defining principles. The conservative label can now mean many things. The right puts itself at risk by insisting upon not being true to itself.
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The result is a curious struggle, typical of our postmodernity, which former Czech president Václav Havel once characterized as a situation where “everything is possible, and nothing is certain.”
The Left in Crisis
Indeed, the seemingly impossible has happened in 2024. Everything is shifting rightward. It is happening everywhere, on every continent and in most major countries. Leftist parties are losing badly in election after election.
The new trends shatter long-standing leftist voting patterns worldwide. An extensive article in England’s The Telegraph analyzes voting results worldwide. It concludes that leftist parties are “more unpopular now than at any time since the end of the Cold War.”
Overall, rightists emerged as winners, securing a record average of 54.6% of the votes in 73 democratic countries in 2024.
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An Overview of the Crisis
This trend is especially dominant in the United States, the European Union and Eastern Europe. The recent re-election of President Donald Trump crowned the rising tide of conservative triumphs.
In 2024, many nations followed the lead of the United States in rejecting diversity, ecological and wokist mandates imposed upon them by zealous leftists.
The Telegraph reports that even Latin America is drifting rightward with victories like that of Javier Milei of Argentina. While the left still led in voting totals, its margin of victory in Latin America was the lowest in more than thirty years. Similar trends appeared in Africa, where South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994.
An Exhausted Ideology
The report illustrates how the left no longer inspires or unites constituencies like the working class that it always assumed was its own. Its activists are united around an exhausted ideology devoid of leadership and dynamism.
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The entrenched left faces voters upset with the latest round of revolutionary changes that went too far, too fast. Wokism, transgender activism and environmental madness provoked voters to rebel.
Thus, it is easy to track the fall of the left. However, the situation on the right is not nearly as defined. Indeed, the failure of the left is much clearer than the victories of the right. We can say that never has the left been so unpopular or the right so undefined.
Lost Opportunities for the Right
The right has capitalized on the left’s vulnerabilities. However, it has not presented a united program to defend the issues that once defined it. The right’s message is scrambled in a jumble of populist, nationalist and other models that tend to advance economic models and avoid hot-button moral issues.
The present hour of victory would be an ideal opportunity to reconnect with conservativism’s deep Christian roots that attract the spiritually famished masses. It would be the time to reaffirm the moral issues that remain popular among those mugged by the left’s immoral agendas.
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Instead, part of the right is un-authentically presenting superficial appearances of Christian symbols and rhetoric but little substance.
A Godless Crusade
In his book, The Godless Crusade: Religion, Populism and Right-Wing Identity Politics in the West, Tobias Cremer concludes that these new political models favor a “secularized idea of ‘Christendom’” that sees Christianity as a “cultural identity marker” rather than a profession of faith or the practice of a moral code.
What is disconcerting about this development is that inside the Christian trappings of this “crusade,” we find those who claim to represent the Christian cause but adopt pagan ideas, atheist attitudes and strange philosophies. Many populist candidates are irreligious, sexually liberal and opposed to a Christian moral code.
The Dangers of a Soft “Hard Right”
The left reacts by complaining loudly that these new “hard-right” parties and candidates are imposing their Christian crusade upon society. However, this so-called Christian crusade is bereft of Christ and His cross.
Thus, these “hard-right Christian” parties include Marine le Pen’s National Rally that recently helped enshrine abortion in the French Constitution. Similarly, the co-chair of Germany’s “far-right” Alternative for Germany (AfD), lesbian Alice Weidel (she and her partner, Sarah Bossard, are in a civil union and have two adopted children), sets an example shockingly opposed to traditional Christian morality. Some conservatives now claim as their own “cultural Christians” like Elon Musk or even atheist Richard Dawkins as representatives of vague Christian values.
Many have the illusion that it is enough to cling to Christian externals without the authenticating embrace of Christian morals. However, this Christian-lite approach cannot produce the profound transformations needed to change society.
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The Path Forward
In this twilight of the postwar era, what people need is clarity. The left clearly revealed its unpopular agenda and paid the consequences.
The right must continue to oppose this agenda and present a unified yet popular program built upon traditional conservative principles and Christian order. The right has the advantage because it has an attractive model. It must be authentic and boldly propose its principles, not just an inconsistent external veneer. It must not mix its message with foreign elements that muddy the waters.
If the right strays away from this path of clarity, it will fare no better than the unpopular left when a day of reckoning comes.
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