John O. McGinnis
Across the West, extremes on the political spectrum are surging. In last June’s election in France, the far-right National Front and the leftist Popular National Front secured 322 of the 577 seats and a commanding majority of the popular vote between them. While a minority of the Popular National Front are traditional French social democrats, the coalition was dominated by the far left and ran on a program of reckless spending and immiserating taxation. In Germany, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) has garnered attention, but now a new far-left party led by Sahra Wagenknecht is also on the rise. These trends are not isolated to France and Germany: in Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Austria, the fringes are gaining strength, reshaping the political landscape.
The two-party structure in the United States does provide some checks on extremism, but political scientists have shown that both Republicans and Democrats are drifting away from the center. An indication of this shift is the choice of vice-presidential candidates in our current election; while these candidates have strengths, they were selected over other candidates that would have stronger appeal to centrist voters. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, in particular, passed over candidates who were not only more moderate but from swing states that would help her avoid the fate of winning the popular vote while losing the Electoral College.
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