The world’s largest democracy India just witnessed a massive victory of the Right Wing. The country had more than 800 million voters. People gave a clear verdict for the right wing to make a government on their own without needing any support from other parties in the alliance. No one had imagined this would happen. Indeed, it has happened and some are still in disbelief and post-shock how it could happen. The world remains in shock. Media pundits and world strategists have all proven wrong.
There is a growing trend of the rising right-wing in democracies. We have started to see similar feelings and some effects in the United States as well. For example, several young people who voted for Obama in 2008 either voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 or didn’t vote for anyone at all. The majority of people who didn’t vote complained that they didn’t have a leader who would represent their voice and the closest person who it could be was Ron Paul. Once Ron Paul was sidelined, the fate of the GOP was pretty much sealed. Young right-wing voters didn’t like Mitt Romney enough to take their precious time out to vote for him. Hence, Obama got luckier and the GOP had to face defeat.
Edward Snowden openly admitted that he voted for Obama in 2008, but he donated to Ron Paul in 2012. There is a big shift from this left to extreme right. Several like Snowden followed the same path. The result we can see.
There is a striking similarity between India’s BJP and the GOP of the US. Both are conservative right-wing. But the GOP is not as right-wing as the BJP is. Libertarians would be a good comparison. Supporters of Liberty and extreme right guys would make a good candidate for 2016. If the BJP wouldn’t have won in India in 2014, it would have never again won in the future. The party was already defamed enough for its extreme right views and on top of that, it added extreme right-wing leaders. The result: people saw a clear distinction between the right and the left and chose the right.
GOP is in the same boat. If the GOP doesn’t secure an absolute majority in Congress and takes over in 2016, the GOP will most likely be limited to history books after 2016. There are still more than two years remaining and the strategy session for campaign has to start now.