Jacob Christensen

Let us for the sake of argument assume that you are a Republican – perhaps even a Republican eyeing public office. Now, a recurrent theme in Republican propaganda has been that the GOP was the party of ordinary people from the Heartland while the Democrat (sic!) Party catered for the wine-drinking, latté-sipping elites of the East and West Coasts.

Unfortunately, political scientists have debunked Republican claims of representing Joe Sixpack. True, rich states in the US are more likely than poorer states to elect Democratic candidates, but rich voters are much more likely to be Republican in any state. The difference in support for different parties is explained by differences in political polarisation.

But suppose you could find a country which fit your ideal of political dimensions? A country where the internationalist, bleeding-heart, latte-sipping elite supported the left wing while the right wing enjoyed the support of ordinary, hard-working Joe the Plumbers? And where the left seems condemned to eternal minority status.

Enter Denmark. Yes, Denmark used to be Social Democratic stronghold, but during the 1990s support for the Social Democrats among blue-collar workers eroded and since 2001 the Liberal Party and in particular the Danish People’s Party have managed to turn the traditional fault-lines in Danish politics upside-down. The left is right and the right is left. In short: Today’s Denmark is as close you will get to living the Republican dream in Europe.

What happened was that the Liberals and the Danish People’s Party during the late 1990s managed to undermine the Social Democrats on the Libertarian-Authoritarian dimension while carefully moving ever closer to the centre on the traditional socio-economic dimension. The Social Democrats still don’t know what hit them. But they know that they have been bombed back to the early 20th century in terms of electoral support.

True, the Conservatives are left as a high-income earner component in the governing coalition, but they have found it hard to promote their tax policies and are more often than not on the receiving end of DF taunts (and so, the Danish dream is not without nightmarish elements for true Republicans, but hey: You can’t always get everything you want).

So maybe Sarah Palin and her advisers ought to consider a visit to Denmark in the near future. Pia Kjærsgaard (and her Norwegian colleague Siv Jensen) might be able to share one or the other secret about how a politician can come out of left field to become a deciding force in national politics.

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