Imagine a candidate in Wales following Trump’s playbook

DISNEYLAND opened its gates for the first time on this day in 1955 and thousands of people in Anaheim, California, entered a kingdom of magic.

Since then more than 700 million people have visited this theme park which combines visions of fairytale Europe with a nostalgic celebration of midwest Americana. You can walk down an idealised version of the main street of a town in the early years of the last century and then look up at Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

Walt Disney’s creation captured the imagination of Americans in the 1950s, but what’s fascinating is that visitor numbers have climbed in the decades since. The equivalent of more than six times the population of Wales passed through Disneyland last year.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a theme park which – wholesomely – taps into affection for an imaginary past has grown in popularity. You could argue that similar forces are at work in politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

President Trump recognised the power of nostalgia in his 2016 election campaign. Without irony or qualification, he told voters in the so-called rust belt that their states would once again be manufacturing powerhouses; his defence of the coal industry won him votes in communities where workers feared their livelihood was about to vanish.

Critics might claim his economic vision was as much a product of fantasy as anything dreamed up by the designer of a Disneyland ride, but the desire to restore an era of plentiful and rewarding employment in communities beset by an opioid crisis is strong.

Just as any classic Hollywood film has heroism at its heart, Trump cast himself as someone with the guts and courage to change the course of history. He presented himself as a warrior leader who wouldn’t allow strange forces and foreign foes to steal jobs and take wealth overseas.

This was a radical contrast with managerial politicians who tell voters they must accept that globalisation has changed the world and they must retrain to gain new skills.

His victory demonstrated that there are legions of voters who don’t want to be lectured but do want someone who will fight their corner against establishment politicians, elite economists and the wishes of international organisations. When Trump is condemned for quitting the Paris climate change agreement, slapping tariffs on steel, picking a trade fight and outraging leftwingers, he can portray the outcry of proof of his fidelity to the men and women who trusted him with their votes.

Just as visitors to Disneyland look forward to grand parades and fireworks displays, Trump understands that voters want to be entertained. Foreign visits become the latest episode in a reality TV show; he uses social media to launch spectacular insults at his opponents – insults that lodge in the mind.

There is no reason to think that Trump is a one-off. Politicians are fascinated by the pursuit and exercise of power, and ambitious individuals around the world will try out his tactics in the coming years.

It is not hard to imagine a populist candidate in Wales now taking a leaf from Trump’s playbook and telling people desperate for regeneration that they could be mining slate and coal. Across Europe, parties have tapped into frustration with immigration and exploited the disorientation people feel at the pace at which society has changed.

Trumpesque candidates who are struggling for attention will use shock tactics to win the limelight, ridicule their rivals and take over parties. They will present opponents who appeal to reason as defeatists who have no taste for adventure, no concept of heroism and no respect for the past. The challenge for politicians who fear that populism poses a threat to the traditions of tolerance that have shaped Western society is to do much more than show disdain for disruptive candidates. They need to acknowledge why citizens are tired of meek ministers who seem afraid to try to shape the future. A generation has seen free university tuition vanish outside Scotland and commentators routinely ask if the NHS is affordable. There is confusion as to why the UK does not train the number of doctors and nurses it requires, and frustration that one of the world’s richest countries seems incapable of providing the elderly with the care they need.

Young parents are driven to distraction by an economy which requires both partners to work to pay a mortgage, even though childcare costs push them to the brink of ruin. Meanwhile, they are told that the pensions their parents enjoy are too expensive for their generation.

In this climate, someone who promises radical change may not look like a lunatic but a source of hope. Politicians should rightly reject shameless scaremongering and odious scapegoating, but audacity has a proper place in a democracy and there are times when it is right to take a wrecking ball to the status quo.

Just as the wealth of a state and the power of government can be harnessed for war, Welsh radicals such as David Lloyd George and Aneurin Bevan grabbed the levers of power and did so much to break the power of poverty and disease to wreck lives.

These men embodied the spirit of adventure and patriotism – but they weren’t looking back at a fake past but towards a better future.

The creative geniuses at Disney who design their theme parks are styled “imagineers”. They have both the visionary spark and the engineering knowhow to create wonderful worlds that now delight audiences from places as distinct as California, Paris and Tokyo.

There was something of the imagineer to Bevan and that extraordinary generation who rebuilt Britain in the wake of World War II and now command the admiration of politicians of all stripes. They had ideas of social progress almost unprecedented in democratic culture and the grit and drive to get Whitehall to turn their vision into reality.

Our health system and public services face challenges, but for billions of people a country with such social provision sounds like an enchanted kingdom. The compassion and ambition which drove its creation is part of a past we should unashamedly celebrate, and we should dare to articulate a vision for an even more exciting future.