Attention, Mr. Scholz: Six unmistakable proofs of the maturity of citizens

FOCUS online Guest article by Gabor Steingart - Attention, Mr. Scholz: Six unmistakable proofs of the maturity of citizens Gabor Steingart (Berlin) • 1 hour • 3 minutes reading time Olaf Scholz sees himself as the nation's class teacher and underestimates the intelligence of citizens. They react in a cunning and mature manner, as the latest elections and surveys prove. Voters have never had a good reputation with the elite. "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with an average voter," British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said. The left-wing elitist Karl Marx was also no fan of popular rule, which is why he preferred the dictatorship of the Communist Party. As editor-in-chief of the Rheinische Zeitung, he is said to have stuck a note on his door that read: "Democracy ends here." Olaf Scholz also does not have a high opinion of the citizens Why this is important: Olaf Scholz also does not have a high opinion of the citizens. The raised index finger could be his logo. He would prefer to delay new elections. The people need a Christmas break. The people still have to process things. Scholz does not see himself as the people's representative, but as their class teacher. This way of thinking is widespread, but wrong. The people, affectionately called "the big rascal" by Heinrich Heine, are smarter than many politicians think. Opinion research and the most recent elections provide us with six unmistakable pieces of evidence for the citizens' maturity. #1 Star power cannot replace substance The attempts to turn the US election around with a large contingent of stars and starlets backfired. The fact that Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez supported Kamala Harris was seen by millions of voters as proof that the Democratic Party is more at home in Hollywood than in the working-class districts of Detroit, Pittsburgh or the Bronx. Trump had an easy time using this to his advantage: "We don't need a star because we have a policy." #2 Voters insist on economic priorities The majority of voters have no business training, but they know the economic priorities. They react allergically to the over-prioritization of climate, identity or social policy because they want to improve their economic status first and then their country's carbon footprint. Companies are not their enemies, but their employers. They are not being ripped off here, as the left thinks, but here they experience their self-efficacy. And if not? Then they don't change their basic political beliefs, but rather the company. #3 Climate protection is not obsolete Beware of a misjudgment: Conversely, this does not mean that the people are socially hard-hearted, linguistically insensitive and ecologically disinterested. The recent elections in the USA and Europe were not about the end of climate protection, but about rebalancing, a re-weighting of the political portfolio. Parties that would now focus on less environmental protection and the priority of the combustion engine will end up insignificant. They will first lose the youth and then the majority. #4 Citizens are not debt puritans Voters are not squeamish when it comes to expanding debt. The "debt ceiling" in the USA, which has existed since 1917 and has now been increased over 100 times, the debt brake in Germany and the Maastricht criteria in the Eurozone are not capable of gaining a majority in any country in the western world. Genetically, voters are more likely to be descended from Keynes than from Lindner, which means that the economic flash in the pan is perceived as warming. But woe betide if it fuels inflation and weakens the currency. Then citizens threaten the debt politicians with the ultimate penalty: voting them out of office. #5 Party politicians can be rude, statesmen cannot Olaf Scholz had to learn that now. His deliberately crude reckoning with his own finance minister, read from the teleprompter, fired back at him. The statements that Lindner was "petty" and "party-political" were perceived by citizens as not very statesmanlike and therefore dubious. Scholz, who wanted to turn from being affected by the FDP's power politics into an actor with his Philippic, miscalculated. The blame for the collapse of the government went from Habeck (heating law) to Lindner (debt brake) to the ruffian Scholz. #6 Defensive reaction to media paternalism The role of the media is now viewed by voters just as critically as that of politicians. Newspapers and TV stations are supposed to inform and inspire, but not indoctrinate. Open election recommendations – with which the editorial team turns itself into the politician’s gun-cocker – have also gone out of fashion in the USA.