If voters can make the wrong choice once, they can ignore results and do it again
To fight nationalist populists such as Indian leader Narendra Modi, you cannot treat them like regular politicians
It is a terrible feeling to discover that your country is full of strangers. For some in India, the election of Narendra Modi in 2014, with a majority that India hadn’t seen in three decades, was that moment. Everyone knew there was discontent with the status quo; everyone knew that Modi was doing well, better than anyone had expected before he became a candidate — but to win an unprecedented majority? It meant that far more Indians than imaginable were willing to trust a leader with so disquieting a record. Since then, I have seen that feeling of shock replicated elsewhere, and often. In Britain, for example, in the summer of 2016, as the country voted narrowly for Brexit. And again, in the US that autumn. After a while, you refuse to believe what happened. It was special circumstances that led to this shock result, you’re told. Voters who should have known better were carried away with anger and enthusiasm, responding to a government floundering in corruption, or to years of feeli...
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