Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – The school of thought that is labelled as liberal is losing elections because it is unable to offer anyone better than Karel Schwarzenberg, David Cameron and Hillary Clinton, Jan Klesla writes in the Czech daily Lidove noviny (LN) yesterday.
He writes that liberalism suffered a defeat when Milos Zeman was elected Czech president in 2013 defeating TOP 09 head Schwarzenberg. Further blows were received with Brexit and most recently the election of Donald Trump U.S. president.
Klesla writes that even the latest in a long series of defeats may not prompt the necessary action. Soppy reactions and the accusations of voters of being uneducated, xenophobic chauvinists predominate, he adds.
Klesla writes that being a relatively typical young and well-off city liberal, he must admit that the mistake rests with the liberals who are arrogant, do not comprehend the problems of the majority and are utterly unable to offer genuine leaders.
However, people are not silly. The major problem they perceive is that capitalism has got out of order, Klesla writes.
He writes that 1 percent of the world’s population owns more than a half of overall wealth. No one has punished the banks, which caused the recent financial crisis while they did not forget to profit from it. There’s a yawning gap between rich and poor, while the latter become poorer and poorer and they are falling into debt, Klesla writes.
However most people want to pay their monthly bills, to be sure of receiving their pension and they want their children to be better off than they themselves, Klesla writes.
He writes that racism, sexism and other negative phenomena grow out from a bad economic and social situation, they flourish thanks to it. Without this their chances are small.
Even though voters may not be directly included in smart statistics as the poor, they are not happy. It is enough for them to see their neighbour living from hand to mouth, or seeking a good job after they reached the age of 50 in vain, Klesla writes.
These people are not ready to listen to the sermons by intellectuals from rich towns, not to say to vote for them, Klesla writes.
He writes that this is particularly true where hopeless personalities, such as the former head of the Czech TOP 09 party, Schwarzenberg, former British prime minister Cameron or failed U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton are sent to contests for leading posts.
They are either old or incapable, or people who were proved liars, which is even worse, Klesla writes.
It is mainly the inability to find better leaders that allows people, who are despised as populists and who rail against the establishment, to win, Klesla writes.
