Thursday, December 31, 2015

Why Populist Parties Are Succeeding

It is simple: conservative parties have sold out their base supporters.  In Europe and the United States, we are experiencing a political realignment.  John O'Sullivan offers this good explanation in National Review:  conservative-party-failures-populist-alternatives  What Trump realizes is that Americans are deeply frustrated that we continue to open the doors to the immigrants of the world while getting little in return.  And we do this during a period of low growth and high unemployment.  In Europe the populists attack the twin failures of the Euro and the Schengen borderless continent.  The real problem is that this realignment is happening only on the Right, and it risks clearing the path for the socialists here and in Europe to consolidate their grip.

O'Sullivan is right that Trump is in this to stay and that he relishes the fight.  People like his personality, his patriotism, and his unwillingness to back down or apologize.  He also challenges the recent Republican obsession with global security and military interventions.  But, with the exception of immigration, he is liberal on just about every issue.

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