What are Vox, Trump and Meloni really selling?
If candidates are the products parties want voters to buy, which emotions are they targeting with their messages and images to get a response?
Once we have started to understand the worldview of a group, in this case a political party in Spain, Vox, linked to a broader global movement (Trump, Cruz, Meloni, Orban, etc) and discover that its members share certain core ideas as part of that subculture, both positive, from their point of view, towards certain ideals that make them seem stronger or better (Christian, traditional, family, God, borders, nations) and negative for whoever finds themselves in the “other” groups (leftists, immigrants, non-Spaniards, Muslims, Brussels bureaucrats, woke multiculturalists) when they look in the mirror or compare themselves to the person standing next to them, we can further debate or explore what it is they are really selling voters, what underlying emotions the ideological sales pitch might be aimed at satisfying are and how much impact that might have in a particular electorate at some level (local, regional, national). If they are selling strength and security, are not fear and weakness the voter emotions being targeted for the desired response (a vote for Abascal or Trump)? If they are shining their reactionary light towards centuries past, might we add fear of an uncertain future to the fear of outsiders or those of a different religion? And if there is greater emphasis on religion and they do not reject conspiracy theories, then what about a fear of or contempt for reason itself? Better to join the simple, strong, authoritarian tribal group than face a complex, uncertain future full of different people who see the world in strange ways. How many more voters will really respond to that in Spain in the 2023 elections? Will everyone’s experiences of fear, suffering, anxiety, uncertainty, boredom and social distancing during the Covid pandemic over the past 2.5 years make more people vote for parties like that?