
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is often called “populism” in the press and it’s emergence around the world. Two parties, by definition, represent different points of view. But in successful democracies, they respect each other. And listen. And even compromise. What has happened to the two-party system in the US, and other countries with historically successful democracies around the world for centuries?
Last week as I was going through various documents in my recently-deceased husband’s study, I found a handful of newspaper articles collected between 1918 and 1951 by his grandfather. His mother died in childbirth when he was born in 1884, and two months later his father also died, leaving him an orphan who was unofficially adopted by an uncle. At six years of age, he was sent to work down in the Yorkshire mines when children were made to crawl into spaces too small for adults to reach. He did not go to school but learned how to read at the local Sunday school, where he was awarded repeatedly for his understanding. He was extremely bright and remained a vociferous reader all his life.
The early newspaper articles showed that he supported Communism, on the grounds that it was a system that would give the poor an equal chance to earn a decent living. After WWII ended, during which his daughter left school at the age of 12 to support the family and developed an extremely successful grocery store serving the town, he dismissed Communism outright. But he was skeptical as well of the UK Labour party introducing socialist legislation which created the National Health System giving free health care to all at the point of need, social security, and the nationalization of many private businesses, including transport.
Now I have recently learned that a similar change is taking place among many Chinese citizens who have escaped absolute poverty on the farm as they have moved to the cities where factory workers are employed. They are not in a position to dismiss Communism outright, but they are showing increasing desire for independence and escape from the encompassing regulations of government.
Reading this, it now seems to me that there are valuable potential strengths in both left-wing and right-wing government policies. The best of the left-wing policies support the worker, believing that they should be given the opportunity to earn a living wage, and given support when they cannot do so. This might be due to poor health, or wages that make it impossible to escape over-crowded housing, to obtain a good education, or even to eat a healthy diet. Effective governments, then, often legislate such things as fair wages, permitted work hours, health care, pension plans, even anti-racism..
The down-side of potential socialist governments is that it sometimes encourages those who simply don’t want to work, who, in other words, become free-loaders. Or it supports governments themselves which are power-hungry, who are unwilling to give its citizens the right to made decisions for themselves.
The best of the right-wing policies emphasize the importance of letting people make decisions for themselves, of hard work, of taking the risks of creativity. The fact that nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children is a reflection of the best of right-wing policies that trust individuals’ own desires and impulses.
Unfortunately, two of the greatest potential down-sides of right-wing policies is a failure to recognize social conditions such as racism, ethnicity, or poverty which make it impossible for people, to make the kind of free choices they would like. The other problem, as is so evident today, is the refusal of those who have achieved, or merely inherited, significant financial or social superiority to let it go. I see it in different manifestations in both the US and the UK: there are those who feel they are intrisically superior, leading to a destructive and self-centered “us and them” attitude.
So both right- and left-wing politics, it seems to me, can pose great dangers to democracy. Either way, the greatest danger is the unwillingness to share my views with people who disagree, to listen to opinions differing from my own, or to say “I might not know everything,”

Or even to say “I might be wrong”!