Recent “shocking” elections in Australia as well as our own American upset in 2016 seem be indicating a significant shift in ideology in the last couple of years. With Canada looking more and more likely to oust liberal Justin Trudeau in their next elections and the Brexit Party taking the EU elections by storm, it looks like a new “wave” of populism is beginning to trend across the globe in response to decades of crushing progressive policy.

The progressive media and elitist set have labeled this wave as “racism” and prejudice. The sad irony is that they don’t even realize it is their characterizations that is a major driver in turning voters away from liberal policies en masse.

Faithful voters across the West have been told for years that they could have the utopia they’ve always dreamed of if they just voted for more wealth redistribution, more regulation and more benefits. If they just opened their borders the world would love them more and hostile actors would give up their swords against western ideology. If they just turned their backs on everything they knew about science, biology and traditional family structure society would become less bigoted, more equal. All the old notions about what makes society and families successful were outdated and ignorant. Get rid of those old notions and class divisions would disappear. Everyone would be happier.

So western voters did that. They voted for “free” healthcare, but when they began complaining about the tax burden and lack of access to quality care they were told they just weren’t giving enough money to help the system. Give more.

They voted to protect the environment but when they complained that their jobs were being squeezed out of the market by government subsidies of green energy projects they were accused of being greedy climate change deniers.

They voted to give more and more and more money to their public schools in a never-ending effort to boost falling success rates. When they complained that their children were being forced to learn about sophisticated and controversial sexual identity issues in the classroom without the knowledge of parents, they were called homophobes and bigots.

They voted for a Black president, a Muslim mayor of a major European city, more women than any other time in history, and minority representatives across the globe. But when they complained that white people were being excluded, insulted and dismissed just because of their race they were called racists.

They voted to give large chunks of their income to fund welfare programs to help the poorest citizens among them; then they voted to give more of their income to fund welfare programs to help the poorest non-citizens among them. When they complained that their own needs were being ignored and their communities were unable to handle the increasing influx of immigrants flocking to all the benefits they were being taxed to provide, they were called nazis.

They voted for more tolerance and more diversity. When they complained that despite their openness to other cultures their own traditional Judeo-Christian values were being attacked, singled out for disrespect and legislated out of the public square they were called ignorant, intolerant and irrelevant.

They voted to offer more benefits to help the homeless and the addicted, but when they complained that their streets were becoming overrun with human waste and drug-related crime they were called insensitive and privileged.

For decades good, productive, decent people voted for progressive policies in the hopes that all of their promises would come to fruition. Who doesn’t want to live in an open, tolerant society where everyone’s needs are cared for always and forever?

But around the globe westerners have slowly been forced to recognize that those promises were empty and worse…never really possible in the first place. People upended centuries of tradition, science and accumulated knowledge for the promise of something better and all they earned were higher taxes and the disdain of a ruling class who has never had to bear the consequences of their high-minded experiments. In a democratic society, how do a group of people who have been shamed into silence by a distant, elitist class and a complicit media (which also happens to be largely comprised of those same distant elitists) make their voices heard?

They vote.

Is the world waking up? Perhaps it isn’t “the world” that is waking up, but rather the Left that is being reminded of their empty promises and their own bigotry. The average western voter has been willing to make compromises in the name of prosperity for quite some time but they’ve never been ignorant of the consequences…they’ve simply been hopeful that their progressive counterparts could bring their lofty visions to fruition.

They have been giving the Left the benefit of the doubt for decades and now their patience is beginning to wear thin. It isn’t “the world” that is waking up, it is the Left that is being reminded that the unwashed masses they loathe and infantilize never really went away despite their best efforts.

Few needs are more powerful than the need to be seen. We all want it – in our lives at home, work or even in global politics. There is an innate human desire to be recognized and when that desire is ignored and left to burn it can lead people to make desperate decisions.

The current wave of anti-leftist voting we are witnessing in western culture is the hallmark of a populace desperate to be seen and no longer willing to take the Left at its word. The overcorrections are being corrected, or least moves are being made in that direction.

The progressive dream has turned into a nightmare. The world is waking up to a cold reality and it looks things are just starting to heat up.