Folk politics wrongly simplifies the complex modern world.
As a result, civil politics’ reliance on local, individual actions and personal emotions severely limits its effectiveness, but another problem is that it focuses on immediate, self-satisfying goals at the expense of lasting, long-term change. For example, civil politics might celebrate a company delaying the construction of an oil pipeline, not realizing that the company is just waiting for people to look away so it can move forward with the project.
In this case, the problem is not that civil politics is local, but that it considers local action sufficient in itself, rather than a necessary element in a long-term vision.
Neoliberalism has evolved from a fringe theory to the dominant socioeconomic approach of our time.
To better understand the limits of folk politics – and the contemporary left in general – just consider what the other side can achieve. Although civil politics failed to bring lasting change, political opposition was able to transform society through neoliberalism.
This political ideology can be summed up as a firm belief in free-market capitalism. However, because classical liberalism is about free markets and opposition to government regulation, it is ironic that neoliberalism relies heavily on state influence to defend property rights, enforce antitrust laws, and generally maintain the neoliberal world order.