We've got to keep fighting the Trump administration's ideological crusade to pander to polluters and special interests.

Europe now seems to be headed down a similar path, as non traditional parties many of them driven by single issues become increasingly influential. Movements like France s anti immigration National Front are making leading mainstream parties more likely to pander to extremists in order to preserve their support.

These middle income sectors make up an even larger part of the electorate, since their turnout rates are higher than those of the poor. Political candidates must engage them, occasionally pander to them, and tailor their message to them, all of which steers leaders and parties toward moderate positions.

A law that curtails the abuse of press power while protecting its freedom to expose the abuse of political power would be difficult, but not impossible, to frame. The essential principle is that the media should not be allowed to pander to the public s prurience under cover of protecting the public interest.

Unfortunately, we are far more likely to see unions growing political influence become a major destabilizing force in trade and growth, with highly uncertain consequences. When we see political leaders in many rich countries pander to unions by bashing each other on free trade and immigration, there is every reason to worry about trouble ahead.

But it is also true that Park nbsp who has refused to meet formally with Abe until he addresses lingering issues over Japan s annexation of Korea nbsp has used history to pander to domestic nationalist sentiment. Indeed, adopting a hardline stance has enabled her to whitewash some inconvenient family history Her father, the dictator Park Chung hee, collaborated with the Japanese military while Korea was under colonial rule.

There have been other times in France s history when entire segments of the electorate have ejected themselves from the game, without the rest of the players rushing over to beg them to get back on the field. Georges Clémenceau, Jean Jaurès, and Raymond Poincaré, at the outset of the twentieth century, did not pander to the nearly half of the electorate that, during the Dreyfus Affair, had exiled themselves from the republic.

As Japan s government never ceases to point out, the Yasukuni shrine, built in 1869, venerates the 2.5 million Japanese who have died for their country, not just the 14 judged as war criminals after WWII. But, while many Japanese feel (with some justification) that South Korea and, in particular, China, exploit the Yasukuni issue to reduce Japan s influence in the region and to pander to their publics strong nationalism, they are missing the point.