Thuringia case: You can’t beat the AfD with morals alone

Per

There is hardly anything more horrific for upstanding democrats than being praised by AfD right-winger Björn Höcke. This happened to the CDU yesterday in Thuringia. She had submitted a motion to reduce the very high real estate transfer tax and pushed it through against the red-red-green state government – albeit with the votes of the AfD. And Höcke came to the desk and smugly congratulated her on her “courage”. Direct hit on the twelve!

The Christian Democrats’ approach to tolerating the AfD’s approval has sparked much outrage in the democratic camp. The left-wing state leader Bodo Ramelow Other politicians called for a “firewall”: One must abandon a political idea if the wrong people threaten to agree to it – even if this idea would help society.

That sounds like a noble ethic. But it doesn’t help to drain the brown swamp in the long term. It would be wiser to face reality. The AfD has strong poll numbers and is a hero everywhere, which seems to please unsettled voters because their poaching works in all political camps, whether in Brandenburg, Saxony or Hesse.

You can read the counter-commentary about why the CDU is now in a quandary here:

The other parties complain about this and are rightly outraged by the AfD’s insidiousness. In reality, however, they duck away from it – to the point of self-castigation. They undoubtedly mean well and describe this as a strength. In fact, they are adopting a victim attitude. This doesn’t go down well with people and strengthens the populists.

Don’t constantly look to the right in fear

The democratic parties should therefore attack with confidence again, without constantly looking anxiously to the right. Focus on success. This is the only way to move forward, say psychologists. They talk about the “winner effect”, as you can read in the “Online Lexicon for Psychology and Pedagogy”: Successes have a positive effect on future successes and make us more successful. This also applies to politicians: in competition they become more concentrated, more self-confident and usually – in a positive sporting sense – more aggressive.

The victim role, on the other hand, is paralyzing. You can learn this very impressively from the Amazon documentary about the German national soccer team at the World Cup in Qatar. The period of the preliminary round was dominated by socially fueled self-doubt about whether one could play in a country that disregards human rights and punishes homosexuality, for example.

The discussion about wearing “One Love” armbands and showing signs of tolerance (shutting up in the team picture) robbed the players of the winning gene. They felt like martyrs to the political discord and were miserably eliminated in the group stage.

Anyone who wants to fight the AfD must not only give clever academic lectures about its shamefulness; Everything has now been said. Nor can he hope that the party will be banned at some point, despite its repugnance. He has to win to make them small. In this respect, the CDU in Thuringia essentially acted correctly because it pushed through its own proposal for real estate transfer tax.

The country’s governing parties would have done democracy a greater service if they had supported the CDU in this proposal instead of ideologically rejecting it – especially since the parties belong to a minority government. Bodo Ramelow could have prevented the “blackest day” of his parliamentary life himself.

When in doubt, Democrats should always agree with each other rather than beating each other up as soon as the AfD approaches or even joins any proposal. This is urgently recommended, because the Thuringia dilemma has long been part of everyday life, especially in local parliaments, where it affects all parties.

Only with self-confidence, that you are doing the right thing and with a clear course can you win voters. Then the AfD will also shrink.