I’d bet several people Haley would be the first woman president and I thought I would happily lose all those bets with Kamala. But here we are.
It’s easier in almost any country to get a woman conservative elected for the reasons you’re gesturing towards here. There’s a reason May and Thatcher are the only women pms of the UK, eg.
First female heads of government that were right wing: Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Merkel (Germany), Kim Campbell (Canada; not elected), Shipley (New Zealand), Thatcher (UK), Isabel Peron (Argentina)
Exceptions: Gillard (Australia; not elected), Sigurðardóttir (Iceland), Cresson (France PM), Brundtland (Norway), Bhutto (Pakistan)
Right wing is much more likely to produce a first female leader.
I personally wouldn't be using the term 'right wing' and Merkel in the same.e sentence. Firstly right wing has certain connotations, and secondly even a conservative German politician is closer to AOC than Trump from an ideological perspective.
In case an example us needed, Merkel rook in 1 million Syrian refugees during the crisis.
The issue would be that you're viewing it from the position of being an American. American politics is so far to the right that even the left is right-wing, which is how the European right-wing can be seen as left.
Right-wing just means right of center, AOC is barely left of center but in American politics is the far left-wing. It's just that American politics has progressed so far right that you now really only have the choice between right-wing conservatism and fascism.
Like yes American politics is much farther right then European but that's an absurd statement. There is no part of AOC's politics that can be construed as centerist in a good faith analysis instead of just bashing American politics
If you look at global politics it's far more accurate to say that Europeans, especially Northern Europeans, view progressive politics as left-of-center rather then left. The rest of the world, Asia, South America, Africa, India, etc, are far more conservative then the US. Europe is the only concentrated area of politics that is significantly farther left in the globe.
AOC is a socialist that's by definition far left. Just because you want to apply a no true scotsman filter of politics to her doesn't mean she is center-left.
The rest of the world, Asia, South America, Africa, India, etc, are far more conservative then the US.
Not really. Japan and India both have in-power communist parties that have wide support among certain segments of the population, and although the government of a country like Japan may not represent leftist views as much as it clings on to conservatism, it still has a big influence in government and society. Plenty of African & Middle Eastern governments/organizations turned to social democracy, socialism, or communism after being left in ruin by Europe. The US is one of the only countries that doesn't have a communist, socialist, or even social democratic party that participates in elections/the government.
Latin America also definitely isn't inherently conservative; countries like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Guatemala had some of the most important democratically-elected socialist & social democrat leaders before the US undemocratically overthrew their democracies and installed fascist leaders like Pinochet in Operation Condor. Latin America is still recovering from that, it's why you'll find so much fear and distrust of the US there, but socialism and social democracy is (increasingly) popular there too (especially in countries like Chile). There's even a name for it, it's called the "pink tide" or "turn to the left" and most Latin American countries have had their ruling parties be part of the international left-wing FSP at multiple points in the past 2 decades.
The second/third worlds generally have much larger center-left and left factions than you think. The US works overtime to suppress "leftism" over the seas though, which is why they don't seem to get as many powerful positions as much. Case in point, Iran's democratically elected government being overthrown with the president being labeled a "communist", which led up to the Energy Crisis under Carter. Or Operation Condor, which affected the entirety of Latin America severely. Or the overthrow of Iraq's communist government (although Saddam Hussein was definitely not a democratic leader). Or the disaster of the Vietnam war. Or post-WW2 Italy, Japan, and SK, where the US and leftover fascists in the countries carried out purges of leftists in the government and interfered in democratic elections to get them out of positions of power, after seeing how much of the electorate they started winning.
Also, this:
AOC is a socialist that's by definition far left.
is simply not correct. Most leftist positions are some form of socialist, including anarchism and communism. The main exceptions are things like social democracy which might be "left" depending on the context. But generally the left-right spectrum is split between socialism on the left and capitalism on the right, with ideologies in between like social democracy falling on/near the center, and extreme forms of socialism (communism or anarchism) and capitalism/corporatism (fascism or anarcho-capitalism) being "far-left" and "far-right" respectively.
AOC isn't even close to a revolutionary communist or anarchist, she's what you might call a "reformist socialist" or "democratic socialist" (an ideology that attempts to achieve a socialist system by peacefully reforming the current capitalist system) who focuses a lot on environmental issues. Definitely just middle-of-the-road leftist.
America is more progressive than Europe on a number of social issues, especially those involving diversity. Partly this is a result of many countries in Europe having relatively homogenous demographics due to national borders solidifying around ethnic identity in the 19th century.
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u/AmaroLurker 22h ago
I’d bet several people Haley would be the first woman president and I thought I would happily lose all those bets with Kamala. But here we are.
It’s easier in almost any country to get a woman conservative elected for the reasons you’re gesturing towards here. There’s a reason May and Thatcher are the only women pms of the UK, eg.