Promise ridiculous prosperity will happen when they win.
Lose.
No matter how successful the winner might eventually be, they can always point to the ridiculous prosperity that never happened, letting them rob their base of even enjoying the basic joy of any progress, keeping them mad, hateful, and controlled.
That actually happened in Hungary with Fidesz, in 2006. They even organized the riots that happened in the autumn.
Of course the MSZP-SZDSZ government had a lot of issues, like planning to privatize the health care, but was sabotaged by Fidesz, a lot. Fidesz even helped the far-right as long as they didn’t deny the Holocaust too much (which is still technically a felony in Hungary, except no longer prosecuted to my knowledge), and pushed the “free speech for all, except for those damn gays and Romani” alignment, while also helping to suppress any news about the anti-communism paranoia of SZDSZ. There was a now infamous political ad of theirs that was pushed during the call for the health-care privatization debates which framed state-owned health care as the last remaining element of communism, except almost no one saw them as most outlets tried to frame the moderate-libertarian party as “communist”, especially the then up and coming kuruc info, a far-right “news” website known for doxxing and holocaust denial. Funnily enough, Fidesz is quietly supporting health-care privatization.
Hear me out: They’re planning to lose.
Promise ridiculous prosperity will happen when they win.
Lose.
No matter how successful the winner might eventually be, they can always point to the ridiculous prosperity that never happened, letting them rob their base of even enjoying the basic joy of any progress, keeping them mad, hateful, and controlled.
That actually happened in Hungary with Fidesz, in 2006. They even organized the riots that happened in the autumn.
Of course the MSZP-SZDSZ government had a lot of issues, like planning to privatize the health care, but was sabotaged by Fidesz, a lot. Fidesz even helped the far-right as long as they didn’t deny the Holocaust too much (which is still technically a felony in Hungary, except no longer prosecuted to my knowledge), and pushed the “free speech for all, except for those damn gays and Romani” alignment, while also helping to suppress any news about the anti-communism paranoia of SZDSZ. There was a now infamous political ad of theirs that was pushed during the call for the health-care privatization debates which framed state-owned health care as the last remaining element of communism, except almost no one saw them as most outlets tried to frame the moderate-libertarian party as “communist”, especially the then up and coming kuruc info, a far-right “news” website known for doxxing and holocaust denial. Funnily enough, Fidesz is quietly supporting health-care privatization.