It will not have escaped the attention of most people this week that the President of the United States was acquitted by the Senate of the United States of America for attempting to extort information out of the Ukrainian government against a potential political rival and, obstructing Congress’s attempts to investigate the issue.

Under any circumstance asking a foreign government to produce information against a political rival is bad enough but, that information was tied to military aid against Russian incursions. Without a doubt this is a massive abuse of power but, the reaction of the American people is what concerned me the most. There were two sides. The outraged and the ambivalent.
These two sides are broadly understood. The outraged believed that the President was in violation of his oath of office while the ambivalent did not find his behaviour improper. In fact, they accepted that it may have been wrong but, “who cares?”.
It is the “who cares?” element of this debate that concerns me the most. Republicans have built their base on the idea of small government, big military and morality. The morality arguments are the ones that resonates the best with most voters. Look at the 2000 election where their theme was to bring back respectability to the White House. Look at the attempts to merge church and state. But in recent years they have been putting forward more and more morally dubious candidates. Donald Trump and Roy Moore come to mind. One who, at best, divorced several wives and, one who actively dated teenagers. When Democrats were accused, or caught, with their pants down, Republicans, like Lindsay Graham would attack them hard on their respective morality but, those days hallowed days have seemed to pass into a new era of the Politics of Winning.

This doesn’t mean the politics of “winning the argument”. It is the politics of winning by any means necessary and never letting go once you win. It means abandoning the core principles of society in the short term to create immediate gains that move on to long term dynastic victories. Brexit and Trump are short-term in their attempt win politically but, long-term they are both about reforming society away from progressive growth. This represents a threat to the very foundations of democracy as we know it.

We are now seeing the transition from veiled threats to aggressive action. Politicians in both the US and the UK are both activating old fears that the left has been trying to eradicate for decades. None of what we are seeing is new. What is new are politicians validating the ideas that we, at the very least, forced into basements and fields deep in forests.

This kind of politics are trying to undo years of progression for the advantage of the very few. Re-ignite old rivalries in the hope of creating an emotional vote at the ballot box. This also seems to only work for right-wing of politics. If one is to mention free healthcare in the US or, free education in the UK, they are asked for in-depth details for the implementation of their plans but, an idea like Brexit, steeped in racist rhetoric, never dealing with the very real economic implications that existed are given, more a less, a free pass. And if you don’t agree with me. Look at the side of this bus.

While this is not the first-time politicians have used the politics of winning to…win, this is the first time we’ve seen at this scale in this part of the world. The same tactics seem to be everywhere and, the left is to busy divided amongst itself to properly fight back.

It has been a long time since I felt something other than concern for the future of my country, this country and the world because, as a student of politics, I know how hard the elites worked to prevent people like myself to vote. I know how hard the one percent of the past wanted to ensure they stayed the one percent of the future. Over the next few months and years, several countries will have the chance to stick up for the democratic rights or, let the numbness lull them into doing nothing. I’ll do my best to keep people awake.