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America has its Brexit. The only difference is that this time there is no part of the world that can dismiss this as a local European difficulty.
After this, the free-market, open, globalist-minded world can only sit back and wonder where the next domino will fall. Maybe France; is anyone now confident that Marine Le Pen cannot win the presidency next year? Whatever comes next cannot reverberate as much as Donald Trump’s improbable victory. It is now beyond doubt that we are seeing a revolt against the political and economic order that has governed the western world for decades. The market reaction made clear that investors see this result in those terms.
The grievances may have been specific — the cost of Obamacare most obviously — but the underlying story is the same and many of the features are common to both the Brexit campaign and to many of the other populist movements being seen across the western world. [...]
His very unsavouriness to the nation’s ruling elite, to its intellectuals and liberals and even to the grand figures in the Republican establishment became almost his greatest selling point to a segment of society convinced that what it needed most was something different. Even if he had not won, the scale of anger and division he stoked would have been hard to quell.
Across the states, Mr Trump touched a chord with the angry, working class, white mainstream who have seen the certainties of their world fade with globalisation, with free trade, with technology and with the sense that America no longer punches its weight in the world.
As with Brexit, an emotional appeal with a simple slogan overcame every rational explanation, many accepted truths and every legitimate doubt about the worthiness of the candidate. As with Brexit, it did not matter that there were no details behind the sweeping promises; the people voted for change first and resolved to worry about the details later. [...]
Mr Trump and his insurgents cheerfully broke every rule, told extraordinary untruths and adopted policy positions which strain credibility. The greatest worry for his opponents — and indeed for the wider world — is that having won by defying every conventional wisdom he has no reason to start listening to it now. There will be few restraints to stop him fulfilling pledges to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran, scrap proposed trade treaties or weaken America’s commitment to Nato. Again, as with Brexit, minorities will wake this morning more fearful about the prejudice which has now been legitimised and unleashed against them.
Once every few decades America has managed to find the right man for a crisis of confidence, perhaps most notably the trustbusting Teddy Roosevelt. Mr Trump rose to power by recognising that his country once more had a yearning for such a man. There the similarity would seem to end. But he has now delivered the most stunning revolt in his country’s history. Americans and the world can now only hope that he somehow manages to prove that — against all the obvious indicators — he is capable of rising to those heights and managing the demons he has set free.
Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)