The resurgence of right-wing populism in the industrialised West is a short-term, a medium-term, and a long-term problem that can only be addressed one way:
Defend the Values of Liberal Democracy
There are many ways to do this, including but not limited to: resisting the dangerous and retrograde policies of the current regime in Washington; working to elect as many of its opponents in 2018 to form a legislative counterbalance; stand up to fascist thugs and Confederate revanchists like those in Charlottesville; suport immigrants who want to partake of those values; join the ACLU and help defend the Bill of Rights; support the social justice efforts of BLM; listen to women who claim harassment; work for election and campaign finance reform; work to reform the Democratic Party into one that’s competent, effective and in-touch; support regulatory reforms for the financial services sector; call your representatives to back single-payer universal health insurance.
And yes, call out those who would make excuses for or downplay the efforts of the right-wing ultra-nationalist Russian autocrat who – make no mistake – considers those Western liberal democratic ideals his enemy and is expending resources throughout the West to undermine them. Russia alone is not responsible for the debacle in the U.S., but to ignore or downplay the Kremlin’s efforts in support of the domestic dysfunction that caused it is to pretend they are not carrying out a systematic geopolitical campaign to promote right-wing populism throughout the world.
In the short term they are the problem, and if we don’t defend liberal democratic values now it will only get worse later.
