# Progressives are still so pessimistic, but why? The populist right can and will be defeated | Andy Beckett

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/progressives-are-still-so-pessimistic-but-why-the-populist-right-can-and-will-be-defeated-andy-beckett/
- Published: 2026-11-13T06:00:12+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-13T06:19:29+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/nov/13/progressive-pessimism-right-defeat-us-midterms-brazil-hungary
- Topics: Americas, Elections, Politics, UK, World

## Key points

- Recent defeats suggest the populist right’s strength has been overstated.
- Progressives often treat its losses as temporary surprises.
- Beckett sees democratic politics as a complex, ongoing stalemate.

## Summary

Andy Beckett argues that recent election defeats for populist conservatives, from the US to Brazil and Hungary, show the global right’s strength has been overstated. He says many liberals and leftists are surprised when the right loses, then assume its dominance will return, even after months of political missteps and poor polling.

Beckett points to the 52% vote for Brexit, Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority in 2019 and Donald Trump’s 2024 win by 1.5 percentage points in the popular vote, which was below 50%, as victories often given outsized meaning. He says US midterm results add to evidence that the movement remains vulnerable, though they have not ended it. Over the past 50 years, Republicans have won the US presidency seven times and Democrats six, a record Beckett uses to argue that politics is closer to a complex stalemate than a settled rightward shift.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.