· 10 min read
Progressive politics has always been guided by an ambition larger than individual gain: to make societies fairer, more equal, and more humane. Yet across much of the world, the left has struggled to mobilize broad support for that vision. Despite overwhelming scientific and moral clarity on issues like inequality and climate breakdown, the policies designed to address them often fail to resonate with the very people they are meant to serve.
The reason is not that the ideas are wrong. It’s that the connection between the macro and the micro — between structural reform and everyday life — has been severed.
When politics stays at the macro level, it becomes too abstract: people hear about fiscal rules, emission caps, or redistribution, but can’t see how it changes their lives tomorrow. When it focuses on the micro level, it often does so through the language of restriction: eat less meat, fly less, buy less. That makes the message sound moralistic rather than empowering, turning necessary collective change into a story of personal loss.
To rebuild trust, the left needs to reframe politics not around what people must give up, but around what they stand to gain — and to anchor every structural proposal in something visible, tangible, and emotionally real.
Why this disconnection happened
The split between macro structures and micro experiences is partly a symptom of neoliberalism’s success. Over the last forty years, politics has been reduced to the management of individuals rather than the transformation of systems. The role of government has been recast as a facilitator of markets, not as a guarantor of well-being. Citizens have become consumers, and “freedom” has been redefined as the right to choose within a system designed by others.
As Alan Greenspan once remarked, it made little difference whether a Democrat or a Republican occupied the White House — both ultimately answered to the market. For decades, that was true. Under neoliberal dominance, politics served the market, not the people. Governments of all stripes privatized public services, deregulated industries, and cut social programs — not because citizens demanded it, but because the market did. Economic “competitiveness” became the ultimate goal, while social welfare, labor rights, and environmental protection were treated as secondary concerns.
But in recent years, neoliberalism has begun to morph into something closer to techno-feudalism. And with that shift, politics has returned to the stage. Donald Trump is perhaps the clearest — and most banal — example of this: a leader who refuses to play by economic orthodoxy, imposing tariffs on allies and rivals alike. Just a decade ago, such actions would have been unthinkable because they violate the very core of neoliberal faith — that markets, not politics, should decide.
This development is both frightening and exciting. Frightening, because we are witnessing how when political power is not contained, it can be used to enforce authoritarian tendencies. Yet exciting, because it signals a potential rupture — a break from decades of neoliberal market supremacy. For the first time in a long while, it opens the possibility of a new kind of politics, one where the economy no longer stands above democratic control.
In this changing context, the left’s traditional instruments — redistribution, regulation, and public ownership — have long been constrained by market dominance. What once seemed impossible within the neoliberal framework may now become viable again. But unless a new and compelling story connects these policies to people’s lived realities — showing how systemic transformation can improve everyday life — they risk remaining ineffective, repeating the patterns of the past. The past mistakes saw policies and environmental politics often filled the void by focusing on personal responsibility: the carbon footprint, the reusable cup, the dietary choice. The result is a form of politics that moralizes at the bottom while excusing the top.
The effect is alienating. People are told they must change their habits, yet see billionaires flying private jets and corporations posting record profits. They hear about planetary limits but experience economic precarity. When the micro and macro are misaligned, cynicism grows.
Why the connection matters
Humans are experiential beings. We understand fairness not through graphs or macroeconomic indicators, but through what we can see and feel. If the left wants to rebuild a sense of collective purpose, it must make structural change perceptible. This doesn’t mean abandoning complexity or nuance — it means translating them into lived experience. For every macro-level policy, there must be a micro-level manifestation: a school lunch that’s healthy and free; a home that’s warm and affordable; a bus that arrives on time and costs nothing to ride.
People feel safe and well when three fundamental needs are met: autonomy, competence, and belonging.
• Autonomy is the sense that your actions are your own — that you have real agency and choice in your life
• Competence is the feeling that you’re capable — that you can handle challenges and contribute meaningfully.
• Belonging is the sense of connection — that you are part of something larger than yourself, seen and valued by others
When these three are present, people thrive. When they are taken away, fear, resistance, and division grow.
That’s why many climate policies fail. They unintentionally strip people of these very foundations of wellbeing.
• CO₂ taxation often feels like a loss of economic freedom — a direct hit to autonomy
• The green transition demands new skills, technologies, and systems, leaving many feeling inadequate — a loss of competence
• Moralized framing of the crisis divides people into “good” and “bad,” undermining the sense of shared purpose — a loss of belonging
If we want real change, climate policy must do more than reduce emissions — it must empower people.
Policies must restore autonomy by giving people meaningful choices, build competence through learning and participation, and strengthen belonging by fostering solidarity rather than blame.
This is not merely a communication strategy; it’s political design. The legitimacy of structural reform depends on whether people can directly experience its benefits. A wealth tax that funds lower food prices will always feel more just than a CO₂ tax that raises them.
In other words, policy should not only redistribute wealth — it should redistribute perception. The outcomes of justice must be visible in everyday life.
From sacrifice to solidarity
Much of progressive communication still centers on loss: we must consume less, travel less, build less. While factually correct, this framing plays directly into the neoliberal imagination, which equates well-being with accumulation. It creates resistance rather than alignment.
The alternative is to anchor climate and social policy in abundance — not material abundance, but abundance of security, care, and time. Instead of saying “we need to stop building,” say “we need to ensure everyone has a home before building more.” Instead of “taxing meat,” say “we’ll make fresh, local produce cheaper than processed food.” Instead of “reducing consumption,” say “freeing people from overwork and debt.”
This isn’t spin. It’s a deeper form of truth-telling. Because behind every call for less lies the promise of more: more fairness, more freedom, more collective well-being.
By translating macro necessity into micro meaning, the left can reclaim the language of empowerment.
Designing politics people can feel
To rebuild political trust, policy must operate like good design: intuitive, legible, and responsive. Just as good architecture translates systemic principles (structure, material, energy) into spatial experience, good politics translates structural justice into lived experience.
Three examples illustrate how this approach could look in practice:
- Wealth taxation for affordable nutrition. Instead of punishing individuals for what they eat, tax excess wealth and use it to lower the cost of fruits and vegetables. People experience fairness directly through the price of food.
- Empty home levy for fair housing. Rather than framing housing policy as restriction (stop building), make it a story of redistribution: taxing unused properties to fund cooperative housing and community repair programs. The visible result is fewer empty homes and lower rents.
- Luxury flight levy for free transport. Instead of guilt-tripping working people for flying once a year, tax frequent flyers and private jets to make public transport free or heavily subsidized. Suddenly, the climate transition feels like a social upgrade.
Each of these policies ties the structural to the sensory. They transform justice from an abstract principle into a daily encounter.
A positive feedback, not a rebound
Some argue that redistributing wealth downward without direct restrictions will increase overall consumption. But that assumption misunderstands both economics and emissions. The wealthiest 10% of the global population are responsible for nearly half of all emissions — not because they consume necessities, but because they consume excess.
Redistribution, therefore, doesn’t amplify environmental pressure; it reduces it. When wealth is redirected from luxury consumption toward collective infrastructure and essential goods, it creates a positive feedback: emissions decline while well-being rises. People gain access to better, greener choices — healthy food, efficient homes, shared transport — without needing to consume more.
In this sense, redistribution is not only a moral project but an ecological strategy. It reduces wasteful demand at the top while meeting basic needs at the bottom, aligning justice with sustainability rather than setting them in tension.
A politics of tangible redistribution
Linking the macro to the micro also reframes what redistribution means. It’s not just about moving money; it’s about reallocating care, visibility, and power.
In a fragmented society, people need to experience that politics is not an external authority but a collective tool. A bus that arrives free of charge or a park that replaces a parking lot signals something deeper: that society values shared well-being over private profit.
These are not “handouts.” They are social signals that rebuild the moral economy — the shared understanding of what’s fair, what’s deserved, and what’s possible.
7. Reclaiming Emotional Legitimacy
The right wins not because it has better facts, but because it owns the emotional frame. It positions itself as the protector of ordinary people against distant elites — while enacting policies that do the opposite.
The left must reclaim that emotional territory. By tying structural reform to tangible, everyday benefits, it can channel frustration toward systems, not individuals. Each reform, each action, each symbol of care should answer three questions — together forming a test of emotional legitimacy:
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Who gains power, and who loses it?
Redistribution must be legible not just in numbers, but in visible shifts of control — who owns, who decides, who benefits. -
How does it make life feel fairer, safer, or more shared?
Fairness is an emotion before it’s an equation. Policy must restore the felt balance between effort, reward, and recognition. -
Where can people see the change with their own eyes?
Direct action — from community repair projects to free public services — grounds abstract justice in public space and daily life. When fairness is visible, trust becomes tangible.
When people see and feel fairness, they begin to trust again. And trust is the true currency of democracy.
The path forward
To reform politics for the left is not to abandon complexity, but to translate it into clarity. It’s to design systems where macro-level justice produces micro-level dignity — and where people experience change not as deprivation, but as restoration.
The left’s challenge is not to make people care more, but to make care visible.
When redistribution can be seen in a cheaper meal, a warmer home, or a free bus ride, politics stops feeling like a distant negotiation and starts feeling like something alive — something that touches you.
Because fairness that cannot be felt will never be believed.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.
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