Young men were forgotten by the campaign. Young men were forgotten by the politics. Young men were forgotten by Poland. That is why Nawrocki won the election.
The recent elections confirmed what we had already known about Poland for many years. Poles are divided, torn almost exactly in half by striking polarization. The results of the first round immediately confirmed the greatest fears. This division of Poland is still going on.
The support map clearly shows that the east is conservative, and the west is liberal. Two different zones. Two different characters. Two different Polands. The effect? The same as always. The presidential election aroused enormous emotions and stained public opinion with a mass of not rational, but rather emotional posts.
Basically, Poland experienced all stages of grief, from denial to (I guess) sad acceptance of reality. What most clearly showed me the negative impact of dividing us in two for so many years were the posts of the “aristocracy” outraged by the results. Because, after all, it was the “uneducated” people who voted for the right. Poles have allowed themselves to label voters with simplistic tags, distorting the complex and nuanced reality of each individual’s story.
This could not end in anything other than war. After all, how can we accept the fact that such people chose such a man? Nawrocki is the worst possible president. His life story shows moral decay, a willingness to engage in bloody reprisals, and a lack of the key competencies required for this position. I stand by each and every one of these words. Karol Nawrocki is not Andrzej Duda. He is not a man who is being played. He is the player, so he will be much firmer in his relations with the ruling coalition. It is truly unfortunate, because he will be resolutely nationalistic.
In view of this, the most obvious prospect of his presidency is the one leading to a severe conflict. Therefore, we must accept that we, as a society, have made the worst possible choice. We must, but because of the reasons above, we are failing to do so. Why? Because we have not yet worked through this trauma as a society. After every heartbreak, we always stand in front of the mirror and say to ourselves, “This woman will not be my wife,” even if we must swallow tears through these words. Then we analyze the whole relationship, identify mistakes, learn the lesson, and move on. With a plan and, more importantly, hope for a better future.
After the presidential election, we did not take any of these steps. All those discussions on the media about the legitimacy of Nawrocki’s election resembled a child desperately pounding on the table because it did not get a lollipop. The second step is to blame the public for the result. The less educated people who voted for the civic candidate “because they do not understand the reality and are too stupid.”
However, it is not the case. These people simply have a different perspective and in no way should we claim that it is in any sense inferior. Besides, it was in fact young people who voted for the right. Men. Why? Young men were forgotten by the campaign. Young men were forgotten by politics. Young men were forgotten by Poland. That is why Nawrocki won the election.
The campaigns of all the candidates have not focused on the problems of young guys. And young guys experience these problems every day. The crisis of masculinity, the lack of relief from the tasks traditionally assigned to them by the culture with the constant feminization of that culture and the demands equalizing opportunities for the poor and weak.
For these people, the fairy tale written by the right was easier. No more refugees, no more social programs and no more tax cuts. Men personally feel the burden of every one of these expenses. This burden is being made very clear to them all the time by the right wing. They talk about men’s responsibility for the state and explain that behind every one of these programs is their hard work and higher taxes. These stories convinced them and motivated them to selfishly vote for candidates who at least “will not take from them anymore”.
Moreover, the way the candidates were shown also prevailed. While Trzaskowski was still portrayed as a nice, decent and educated representative of the upper class, who did everything for his education all his life, Nawrocki was (correctly) turned into a criminal and an obnoxious hustler. When Trzaskowski was standing hunched over the rostrum in Konskie, his pale face expressed a straightforward feeling that he should not have been here. He was emanating with contempt for the five-percent peasants who needlessly were wasting his time. Meanwhile Nawrocki was authentic the entire time. He was familiar, boorish, making mistakes like everyone else. That’s why he won. Unfortunately.
Written by Jakub Andrzej Luber
The article was originally published at: https://liberte.pl/mlodzi-gniewni-prawicowi/
Translated by Amelia Gumińska
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