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Where The World Is Burning In 2026

As of August 1, 2026, wildfires and landscape fires have burned 112.3 million hectares of land across the globe, an area roughly the size of South Africa.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Sofie Gilbert, uses data from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) via Our World in Data to show where that burning is concentrated in 2026 as of August 1.

The data includes prescribed burns, agricultural burns, and uncontrolled wildfires.

Africa Is the Epicenter of Global Fire Activity

More than half of the world’s burned land so far in 2026 is in Africa.

The data table below shows the land area burned for every country as of August 1, 2026:

RankCountry or TerritoryArea Burned in Hectares
(YTD to Aug 1, 2026)ShareRegion
1🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo13,611,12612.1%Africa
2🇦🇺 Australia11,801,65010.5%Oceania
3🇦🇴 Angola7,473,0346.7%Africa
4🇸🇸 South Sudan6,955,0226.2%Africa
5🇨🇫 Central African Republic6,017,8815.4%Africa
6🇲🇲 Myanmar4,325,7023.9%Asia
7🇮🇳 India4,029,7043.6%Asia
8🇷🇺 Russia3,335,0293.0%Europe
9🇬🇳 Guinea3,250,9922.9%Africa
10🇿🇲 Zambia3,213,6872.9%Africa
11🇻🇪 Venezuela2,977,4662.7%South America
12🇳🇬 Nigeria2,807,2002.5%Africa
13🇹🇭 Thailand2,669,5502.4%Asia
14🇱🇦 Laos2,641,3212.4%Asia
15🇺🇸 United States2,371,2072.1%North America
16🇨🇳 China2,265,0572.0%Asia
17🇨🇦 Canada2,031,7541.8%North America
18🇧🇷 Brazil2,030,2091.8%South America
19🇪🇹 Ethiopia1,851,1311.6%Africa
20🇬🇭 Ghana1,763,3951.6%Africa
21🇰🇭 Cambodia1,525,3121.4%Asia
22🇲🇱 Mali1,490,6981.3%Africa
23🇨🇲 Cameroon1,435,3731.3%Africa
24🇹🇩 Chad1,309,1551.2%Africa
25🇲🇽 Mexico1,264,8231.1%North America
26🇸🇩 Sudan1,203,1581.1%Africa
27🇸🇳 Senegal1,187,5911.1%Africa
28🇹🇿 Tanzania1,048,6630.9%Africa
29🇨🇴 Colombia891,9850.8%South America
30🇲🇿 Mozambique787,0660.7%Africa
31🇿🇦 South Africa784,6470.7%Africa
32🇸🇱 Sierra Leone731,5350.7%Africa
33🇲🇬 Madagascar687,0860.6%Africa
34🇨🇬 Congo677,3540.6%Africa
35🇧🇫 Burkina Faso553,7190.5%Africa
36🇧🇴 Bolivia546,4900.5%South America
37🇦🇷 Argentina545,3040.5%South America
38🇺🇬 Uganda519,6010.5%Africa
39🇮🇩 Indonesia488,3650.4%Asia
40🇨🇮 Cote d’Ivoire451,5270.4%Africa
41🇰🇿 Kazakhstan429,5200.4%Asia
42🇵🇾 Paraguay405,6690.4%South America
43🇧🇯 Benin343,4160.3%Africa
44🇭🇳 Honduras320,8840.3%North America
45🇨🇱 Chile304,9830.3%South America
46🇻🇳 Vietnam283,6380.3%Asia
47🇵🇭 Philippines237,1680.2%Asia
48🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea228,4400.2%Oceania
49🇹🇬 Togo208,9050.2%Africa
50🇳🇮 Nicaragua205,3060.2%North America
51🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau198,4970.2%Africa
52🇿🇼 Zimbabwe191,3330.2%Africa
53🇨🇺 Cuba181,7210.2%North America
54🇪🇸 Spain179,6770.2%Europe
55🇬🇹 Guatemala171,3980.2%North America
56🇧🇼 Botswana170,8550.2%Africa
57🇱🇷 Liberia170,4280.2%Africa
58🇳🇵 Nepal156,2150.1%Asia
59🇺🇦 Ukraine154,2020.1%Europe
60🇳🇦 Namibia145,0110.1%Africa
61🇧🇩 Bangladesh143,9820.1%Asia
62🇮🇷 Iran119,4920.1%Asia
63🇬🇦 Gabon103,4190.1%Africa
64🇨🇷 Costa Rica98,0350.1%North America
65🇩🇿 Algeria97,9850.1%Africa
66🇬🇲 Gambia97,6640.1%Africa
67🇫🇷 France96,0500.1%Europe
68🇳🇪 Niger87,0000.1%Africa
69🇵🇰 Pakistan80,4850.1%Asia
70🇮🇹 Italy69,0500.1%Europe
71🇮🇶 Iraq65,8260.1%Asia
72🇰🇪 Kenya62,4590.1%Africa
73🇲🇳 Mongolia60,4470.1%Asia
74🇲🇼 Malawi57,6400.1%Africa
Much of this reflects deliberate seasonal burning. Across sub-Saharan Africa, fire is a long-standing tool for clearing land, managing pasture, and preparing fields for planting. Even so, the scale is striking: Africa has recorded roughly 26 times as much burned area as the United States so far in 2026.

The Democratic Republic of Congo leads all countries with 13.6 million hectares burned, an area roughly the size of England. Angola follows at 7.5 million hectares, South Sudan at 7.0 million, and the Central African Republic at 6.0 million.

Major Fire Seasons Beyond the Global Leaders

Burned-area totals alone do not measure wildfire severity or risk, particularly because the GWIS dataset includes agricultural and prescribed burning. Still, several countries outside the global leaders have experienced significant uncontrolled wildfires in 2026.

Spain has experienced one of the year’s most severe fire seasons. Driven by extreme heat and drought, wildfires had scorched approximately 180,000 hectares as of August 1, an exceptionally high total for this point in the season. A massive fire in Ávila became the largest in Spanish history, and with simultaneous fires raging across France, combined evacuations across both countries surpassed 300,000.

Canada has recorded 2.0 million hectares burned as of August 1, with fires active across multiple provinces. The 2026 season follows the country’s record-breaking 2023 season, which burned approximately 15 million hectares according to Natural Resources Canada, seven times the historic national annual average.

The United States has recorded 2.4 million hectares burned, with Oregon and Washington experiencing some of the most severe ongoing fires. More than 100 large wildfires were actively burning as of early August, driven by drought conditions affecting more than a quarter of the country’s land area.

As four decades of U.S. wildfire data show, the number of fires has declined over time while the total land burned has increased, pointing to fires that are fewer but more intense.

Australia Stands Apart in the Southern Hemisphere

Outside Africa, Australia has recorded the largest burned area at 11.8 million hectares. That ranks second globally behind the Democratic Republic of Congo and accounts for nearly all of Oceania’s 11% share.

The data table below shows a regional breakdown of land area burned in 2026 so far:

RegionArea Burned in Hectares
(YTD to Aug 1, 2026)Share
Africa61,870,30055.1%
Asia19,733,18217.6%
Oceania12,061,71410.7%
South America7,813,3777.0%
North America6,804,9056.1%
Europe3,992,4043.6%
World112,275,880100%
Asia accounts for 18% of global burned land. Myanmar leads the region at 4.3 million hectares, followed by India at 4.0 million. Thailand, Laos, and China each add between 2.3 and 2.7 million hectares.

South America contributes 7% of global burned land, led by Venezuela at 3.0 million hectares and Brazil at 2.0 million. Europe accounts for just 3%, with Russia responsible for most of the region’s 3.3 million-hectare total.

If you enjoyed this graphic, check out How Much CO2 do Wildfires Contribute Globally? on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/14/2026 – 23:00

Screencap of Twitter/X video.
During a recent conversation with Latino journalist Jorge Ramos, high ranking members of the DSA turned into a stuttering mess when they were asked a simple question about whether or not Cuba is a dictatorship. HINT – It is.
They immediately try to make the issue about Trump and the blockade on Cuba, because they cannot answer this question honestly.
Ramos keeps trying to give them an opportunity to answer the question, pointing out that Cuba has not had real elections in decades, engages in all forms of censorship and has political prisoners, but they just won’t embrace the truth.
From Stu Smith:
DSA Co-Chairs Squirm When Pressed on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua
This is a longer clip, but it captures the best parts of a broader discussion DSA national co-chairs Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer had with The Moment hosts Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos.
Jorge repeatedly presses them on whether Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are dictatorships. They repeatedly avoid giving him a direct answer.
Romer eventually responds that “Cubans have access to their democracy in a way that we do not,” pointing to Cuba’s 2022 Family Code referendum as evidence. That referendum was only four years ago, making it an especially curious answer to Jorge Ramos repeatedly pressing her on decades without multiparty elections.
Ashik Siddique fares little better. Asked whether Cuba is a dictatorship, he pivots to the U.S. embargo and the state of American politics, responding that “it’s hard for us to judge other countries being dictatorships when we have Donald Trump as president.”…
When it comes to international politics, DSA is often at its most revealing. Siddique and Romer are not even among the organization’s most die-hard internationalists. This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how radical DSA’s international politics can get.
Here’s the clip:

DSA Co-Chairs Squirm When Pressed on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua
This is a longer clip, but it captures the best parts of a broader discussion DSA national co-chairs Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer had with The Moment hosts Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos.
Jorge repeatedly… pic.twitter.com/d2MqonAcya
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 14, 2026

What a revealing moment.
Does anyone doubt that these people would absolutely embrace a dictatorship in the United States, as long as the dictator was one of their own?
It’s why they can’t answer the question. They admire what happened to Cuba.

The post DSA Members Can’t Bring Themselves to Admit Cuba is a Dictatorship – Immediately Try to BUT TRUMP! (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

All ICE Enforcement Officers In Maine Equipped With Body-Worn Cameras, Sen. Collins Says

Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Maine have been given body-worn cameras and trained how to use them.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walk outside the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, Calif., on July 27, 2026. Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

Acting ICE Director David Venturella announced on Aug. 8 that federal agents would be equipped with body-worn cameras by the end of the month in a move to increase “transparency and accountability.”

The cameras are a key measure that congressional Democrats demanded during a months-long dispute earlier this year over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In an Aug. 13 post on X, Collins said that she was pleased that as of 2 p.m. on Thursday, all ICE officers in Maine “have been equipped with body-worn cameras and trained in their use.”

Collins said that when she spoke to Venturella last month, he committed to deliver body-worn cameras to ICE agents across the country by the end of August.

“I urged him to prioritize Maine, and they have arrived more than two weeks ahead of schedule,” she added.

Democratic lawmakers have demanded that ICE be reformed following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during operations in Minnesota earlier this year. Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Good were both shot and killed by ICE agents in January.

According to a notice published by the DHS on Aug. 10, ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that can deliver electric shocks for its agents.

The devices, known as CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E, or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are expected to be delivered by March 31, 2027, according to the notice.

The notice refers to the gloves as “conductive distraction and de-escalation” devices, which ICE seeks to buy for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents.

The device manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, stated on its website that the devices were designed “to supplement existing tools for law enforcement, corrections, security, EMS [Emergency Medical Services] and the military.”

The devices must be applied directly to a person’s skin and are ineffective when applied through clothing or hair, according to the user manual. No more than two gloves should be used at a time, with each application lasting not more than 15 seconds, it stated.

A DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email at the time that ICE aims to ensure its officers have the tools and equipment they need to safely arrest and remove “criminal illegal aliens” from the country.

“Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards,” the spokesperson said.

In an Aug. 7 statement, ICE said it arrested more than 1,200 illegal immigrants across Georgia under Operation Safe Community-Atlanta, which targeted illegal immigrants with criminal histories, including charges of aggravated assault, sex crimes, assault and battery, and crimes against children.

The Trump administration is also imposing heavy fines on illegal immigrants.

In a July 23 statement, DHS said that more than $84 billion in civil fines have been imposed on such individuals. This includes a $998-per-day charge levied on any illegal immigrant who does not leave the country despite a final order for removal.

“Under President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, DHS is working faster than ever before to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” assistant secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement at the time.

“Our message to illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, you will face the consequences, including fines, arrest, and deportation. Illegal aliens have a choice,” she added.

Tom Ozimek, Troy Myers, Jack Phillips, and Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/14/2026 – 22:35

Screencap of Twitter/X video.
This week during a CNN panel discussion, some commentators decided to repeat the far left talking point that activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti were ‘murdered’ by members of ICE.
The simple fact is that both Good and Pretti would be alive today, had they not aggressively tried to interfere with ICE officers in the course of their duty. These people put themselves in harm’s way and it ended in the worst way possible, but it certainly was not murder. Good was using her vehicle as a weapon. Pretti was actually armed with a gun.
The fact that Jennings had to make this point speaks volumes about CNN, and not in a good way.
Transcript via the Vigilant Fox:
CNN goes off the rails after TWO panelists flat-out accuse ICE agents of murdering American citizens.
Scott Jennings refuses to let it slide. Even the host had to step in and push back.
SARAH MATTHEWS: “There weren’t murders of American citizens in our streets, and [Obama] was able to do… immigration enforcement.”
JENNINGS: “What murders are you talking about?”
MATTHEWS: “Talking about Renee Good. Alex Pretti.”
JENNINGS: “Have there been convicted murderers in these cases?”
MATTHEWS: “I have seen the video evidence which shows a very—”
JENNINGS: “So just for the record, you’re flat-out calling him a murderer? Is that what you’re saying?”
MATTHEWS: “I’m saying that they look like they murdered those people in cold blood in broad daylight.”
JENNINGS: “They murdered her, is that right?”
MATTHEWS: “Hey, I’ll say it. It looked like those agents murdered those innocent American citizens.”
JENNINGS: “Barack Obama was able to deport millions upon millions of people. The difference is now the Democratic Party has changed. Back then, I guess they were fine with it. Today, they instruct people to go interfere with federal law.”
Watch the video:

CNN goes off the rails after TWO panelists flat-out accuse ICE agents of murdering American citizens.
Scott Jennings refuses to let it slide. Even the host had to step in and push back.
SARAH MATTHEWS: “There weren’t murders of American citizens in our streets, and [Obama] was… pic.twitter.com/qKxbjePaKw
— The Vigilant Fox (@VigilantFox) August 13, 2026

People on the left don’t even really care about Good and Pretti, they’re just convenient political pawns.
Talking points and nothing more.

The post Scott Jennings Schools CNN Panelists Who Accuse ICE of ‘Murdering’ Renee Good and Alex Pretti (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever were back at the friendly confines of Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as they welcomed another one of the league’s biggest stars, Paige Bueckers, and the Dallas Wings.Now, there’s been a lot of drama in the WNBA as of late, and this one delivered some of that as well.Just a different brand of drama. Not the clotheslining and rage-tweeting-about-White-privilege-from-the-locker-room kind.DIJONAI CARRINGTON RESPONDS TO ‘WHITE PRIVILEGE’ POST, BUT LEAVES MEANING OF IT STILL UNCLEARThe Wings entered the game shorthanded, with Azzi Fudd among those sidelined.Still, despite missing some serious firepower, Dallas kept things close.It started slowly, with both teams failing to put more than 20 points on the board in the first quarter, but the offense ramped up a touch in the second quarter, with the Wings taking a 37-35 lead to the locker room.Speaking of which, it was at the very end of the first half that one of the most notable moments of the game occurred.Clark rolled her ankle while the Fever were on defense and, worse yet, hobbled off the court to the locker room.The Fever were hoping to take over first place in the Eastern Conference, and that would be tough in a close game without Clark.However, thousands of fans in the building breathed a sigh of relief when Clark started the second half and went on a roll.ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!The floodgates opened offensively, with Clark finishing the night with 29 points and 10 assists. Bueckers also scored 29 points for the Wings, adding six assists and six rebounds.But the Fever got an added scoring punch from Kelsey Mitchell — who finished with 23 points for a franchise-record 18th straight 20-point game — and Tyasha Harris, who went 4-for-4 from 3-point range, to pull away for a 98-87 win.That gives the Fever first place in the East over the Atlanta Dream, who, coincidentally, will host them on Sunday in a big game for the conference’s top spot.

Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) are warning that socialist ideas are gaining traction among young Americans as the country heads toward the midterm elections, pointing to the education system, the appeal of “free stuff,” and the experiences of countries including Cuba, Venezuela, and the former Yugoslavia as they argue against bringing similar policies to the United States.
The post Exclusive: Reps. Tenney, Malliotakis Warn Socialism Gaining Ground with Young Voters, Point to Mamdani Agenda appeared first on Breitbart.

President Donald Trump touted Friday an executive order he signed directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a police officer.
The post Trump Touts Death Penalty for Cop Killers as Officer Deaths Hit 80-Year Low appeared first on Breitbart.

President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States will declare the Strait of Hormuz “U.S. territory” after it finishes defeating Iran, escalating his assertion of American control over the strategic waterway as Tehran vowed that the strait “has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.”
The post Trump Says U.S. Will Declare Strait of Hormuz ‘U.S. Territory’ — ‘After We Finish Defeating Iran’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Screencap of Twitter/X video.
As the Gateway Pundit reported earlier today, Graham Platner – the Democrat who was running for U.S. Senate in Maine until he was credibly accused of rape and had to drop out of the race, is now set to headline a Labor Day event in Maine.
Democrat activist and former DNC vice chair David Hogg, is not happy about this news, which is ironic considering he was a big Platner supporter until about 15 minutes ago.
The Hill reported in October of 2025:
A coalition of Democratic youth-focused groups endorsed oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner on Tuesday in the Maine Senate race to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) next year.
The groups include former DNC vice chair David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve, Voters of Tomorrow, College Democrats of America, Gen-Z for Change and Youth Save Democracy. Platner, whose campaign has focused on the working class and makes an economic populist pitch, is among a crowded field of Democrats looking to oust the five-term GOP incumbent.
“After our historic loss in the 2024 election, conversations within the Democratic Party have rightly centered on age, the loss of young men, the working class, and the growing disillusionment of young voters,” Hogg said in a statement. “As our party charts a path forward, Graham Platner represents not the entire solution, but a vital step in the right direction.”
Here they are in happier times.

Hogg helped recruit Platner last year. pic.twitter.com/46lUgacjU5
— richard_thunderbay (@thunderbay63) August 14, 2026

Everything is different now.
In the video below, Hogg says:
“Graham should not be going on any form of comeback tour, if that’s what he’s trying to make this. He needs to go on an apology tour. If anything. He needs to apologize to the victims of his behavior and he needs to apologize to those people that he’s clearly lied to.”
Watch:

David Hogg says Platner shouldn’t be speaking at an upcoming labor event in Maine.
They went all in to make this guy a model for the new type of candidate they want to run, and are now upset that he doesn’t want to go away and be quiet. pic.twitter.com/3weT58IpwV
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 13, 2026

Hogg is not the only Democrat who feels this way, according to the Bangor Daily News:
Democrats expressed confusion and frustration after activists in Hancock County announced a Labor Day rally featuring former U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner with many in the party looking to leave him behind after a rape allegation ended his campaign.
Sources said the announcement caught the campaign of the new nominee, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, by surprise. The mix-up lands at a pivotal moment for him as he races to build a national operation against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.
Republicans have spent weeks trying to tie Jackson to Platner even as Jackson has opened a slim lead over Collins in early polling. Any fresh attention on the former nominee threatens to undercut that effort just as national Democrats rally behind him.
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” former Maine Democratic Party Vice Chair Peggy Schaffer said. “He’s not an elected official, not a union member, and he’s an accused rapist.”
Did Democrats really think Platner was just going to fade off into the night?

The post Former Graham Platner Supporter David Hogg Upset That Platner is Headlining a Labor Day Event in Maine (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Forget Reminding Young People About ‘Boat People’: South America’s Rejection Of Socialism Is Happening In Real Time

Andy Laperriere, Piper Sandler’s head of US policy research in Washington, wrote in a note on Thursday that explained both parties are moving left on economic policy as populist measures gain support across the political spectrum. His big-picture view is that “hard-left and socialist candidates” are damaging the Democratic brand primarily through deeply unpopular positions on open borders, defunding the police, and transgender politics. In effect, the party’s socialist class is willing to sacrifice broader electoral viability to defend nation-killing policies that most voters reject.

Policies with cross-party support include a $15 federal minimum wage, a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates, restrictions on Wall Street’s purchases of single-family homes, and expanded government intervention lowering drug prices.

Even Republican voters back several of those proposals by wide margins, suggesting the post-election policy threat to markets will extend beyond Democratic control of Washington.

Here’s where the numbers are striking: About 80% of Republicans support banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, 79% favor capping credit card rates, and 75% back a $15 minimum wage. Across all voters, 63% support higher taxes on corporations and billionaires, while 59% favor government-provided health coverage.

Laperriere pointed out that President Trump and JD Vance have helped move Republicans away from Milton Friedman-style free-market economics by framing trade, corporate power, and economic transactions in increasingly zero-sum terms.

Laperriere said Democrats face a different kind of problem, noting that the party’s socialist and progressive economic proposals are often popular, but its positions on policing, immigration, and gender remain deeply unpopular. Only 29% of voters support abolishing ICE, 24% back transgender athletes competing outside their biological sex, and 11% favor abolishing the police.

Laperriere noted that two-thirds of Democratic voters now hold a favorable view of socialism, partly because younger folks have no lived memory of Soviet bread lines, the Berlin Wall, or the Vietnamese “boat people” who fled communism.

Furthermore, as we’ve outlined, the failed socialist experiment in South America has resulted in a once-in-a-generation shift to common-sense right-wing leaders, with Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella taking power in Colombia just a week ago. 

The political shift has extended far beyond Colombia. In recent years, voters across Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador have either rejected socialist governments or moved decisively against far-left parties.

Laperriere argues that younger Democratic voters lack any living memory of the “boat people” and therefore have little historical context for understanding how socialist and communist systems fail. But the warning signs are not confined to the Cold War era; rather, years of left-wing governance in South America that have coincided with currency crises, persistent inflation, capital flight, institutional deterioration, and rising crime that resulted in failed states, such as Venezuela and Cuba, are more than enough to show youngsters that socialism has failed – yet again. Latest figures show that there are nearly 800,000 illegal aliens from Venezuela in the US – and we wonder why … 

More from Laperriere:

We want to make two related points in today’s piece. First, voters across the political spectrum are more open to progressive/populist economic ideas than perhaps most investors think – and both parties (if Vance is the GOP nominee) are going to increasingly offer the voters leftof-center economic policies. The hard left and socialist candidates are not swimming upstream when they call for higher taxes on the wealthy, price controls, and more government entitlements. It’s their ideas on the police, the border, and gender identity that will hurt them politically. Second, Democratic voters are fed up with their own establishment for two main reasons: a sense their leaders are feckless when it comes to challenging Trump and the fact that a significant and growing share of the Democratic voting base is hostile to Western civilization. 

We argued in our recent piece, A Policy Bear Market, that both parties increasingly evince an open hostility or at least a wariness to free markets. As we noted in that report, JD Vance is running against Milton Friedman and market fundamentalism. President Trump has tapped into a growing sense that the system is rigged – and over time has convinced more Republicans this is true. He has a zerosum view of economic transactions in which one side is, in his words, getting screwed. It’s true there has always been economic populism on the right, and as we often noted you could call it ‘populism’ because it’s popular. It’s popular to say we won’t touch your benefits, to make the other guy pay higher taxes, and to scapegoat other people for the price you have to pay for drugs, gasoline, or anything else. But as the table below shows, a lot of ideas we generally associate with the left end of the political spectrum enjoy broad or at least considerable support among Republican voters. The move to the left on economic policy isn’t limited to Democratic voters.

And of course there has been a seismic shift to the left among Democratic voters. We noted in a recent piece that two-thirds of Democratic voters have a favorable view of socialism. Part of the reason is it has been a long time since ordinary voters have seen socialism in practice. Ask a group of people who grew up in the 1970s or 1980s what ‘boat people’ means and most of them will be able to tell you it’s people who got on leaky boats (or put their children on them) to flee communism and seek a better life. It’s most associated with immigrants from Vietnam but also Cuba and other places. See President Reagan’s brief 1982 Christmas radio address for a moving story of US Navy sailors rescuing some Vietnamese in a desperate situation to get a sense of the phenomena. 

During the Cold War, socialism didn’t have much purchase with voters because images of desperate people fleeing communism, the bread lines in the Soviet Union, and the fact that the guns mounted on the Berlin Wall pointed inward were there for all to see. There were a few exceptions (like Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union), but it was obvious to most voters that socialism doesn’t work.

But the Berlin Wall fell more than 35 years ago and socialism is rarely practiced anywhere in the world today. Ask a younger group of people what ‘boat people’ means and you get blank stares. A whole generation of people have grown up having seen nothing of the kind. Instead, a generation of young people has been taught in many schools (especially elite ones) that America (and Western civilization more broadly) is racist and rotten. This view is held disproportionately among young and highly educated white voters. 

This is the coalition that is fueling the insurgent campaigns that have taken out most Democratic House incumbents who have lost their primaries this year. They hold not only progressive or even socialist economic views; they are hostile to Western civilization. They view borders and the police as the vestiges of racism. As the table above shows, these views (in contrast to some of their economic views) are wildly unpopular. Francesca Hong, who narrowly lost the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor this week, posted a few years ago that we should cancel Thanksgiving because it is “celebrating colonialism.” We couldn’t find a poll result for cancelling Thanksgiving, but imagine defending that in a general election. 

Nonetheless, she received more than 38% of the vote this week. That may be roughly the share of the Democratic primary electorate (which is much smaller than the Democratic general electorate, but nonetheless picks the candidates) that is hostile to Western civilization. Along with frustration with their leaders for being ineffective at challenging Trump, Democratic voters have been in a mood to vote out incumbents. The chart on the following page shows that 10 incumbents have been defeated in primaries this year, the most in a non-reapportionment year (in which incumbents end up running against each other or in territory they haven’t represented before) going back to the 1950s. Most of the incumbents who have lost were Democrats who lost to younger, more left-wing candidates. The turmoil in the Democratic Party has a lot of similarities to the forces that propelled Trump to the Republican nomination in 2016. 

As a quick aside, of course there are other explanations for the shift to the left on economic issues. Corporate profits account for a larger share of GDP. Wealth is increasing faster than incomes, and that disproportionately benefits the wealthier people who hold assets. A decade of zero rates – and the return to more normal rates – has priced many younger people out of the housing market. There was the spike in inflation. There has been a steep decline in manufacturing employment during the past several decades (though not manufacturing output). And so on.

Regardless of the causes, the bottom line for investors is both parties are moving to the left on economic issues. The socialists and the progressive left have taken unpopular positions, but it’s their social agenda that is likely to sink them politically. Many of these more left-wing economic policies are popular (including among many Republicans) and may be become law down the road.

Yet the nonprofit ecosystem of billionaire-backed foundations, far-left NGOs, Democratic Socialists of America activists, and progressive corporate media has little incentive to highlight the political shift across the Americas. The political backlash undermines the core narrative that capitalism is inherently destructive and that socialism will succeed if implemented correctly next time.

The Trump administration could exploit that vulnerability by expanding its messaging around Latin America’s rightward turn. The objective would be to remind younger voters that socialism has miserably failed, and that its consequences always end in disaster: inflation, currency crises, capital flight, institutional decay, soaring violent crime and rising insecurity.

Related read: South America Just Rejected Socialism. So Why Is North America Buying It?

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/14/2026 – 22:10