Andrew Sullivan foresees the coming Trumpslide in 2020. But
one correction: it is not a question of "could", but rather,
"will".
I don’t
believe it’s disputable at this point that the most potent issue behind the
rise of the far right in America and Europe is mass immigration. It’s a core
reason that Trump is now president; it’s why the AfD is now the third-biggest
party in the German, yes, German, parliament; it’s why Austria’s new chancellor
won by co-opting much of the far right’s agenda on immigration; it’s why
Britain is attempting (and currently failing) to leave the EU; it’s why Marine
Le Pen won a record number of votes for her party in France this spring. A
critical moment, in retrospect, came with Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to
import over a million Syrian refugees into the heart of Europe. I’ve no doubt
her heart was in the right place, but the political naïveté was stunning. How
distant from the lives and views of most people does an elite have to be to see
nothing to worry about from such drastic social and cultural change? Michael
Brendan Dougherty elegantly explains here the dynamic that followed. There are
now new borders and fences going up all over Europe, as a response to Merkel’s
blithe misjudgment.
You would think that parties of the center-left would grapple with this existential threat to their political viability. And some have. One reason Britain’s Labour Party has done well in the last couple of years is that it has recognized the legitimacy of the issue. During the Brexit referendum, their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, expressed ambivalence toward remaining in the EU, careful not to lose his working-class base to the Europhobic right, recognizing the fears so many of his own supporters had about the impact of mass immigration on their lives, jobs, and culture. Even someone as leftist as Corbyn chose to be a pragmatist, trying to gain power, rather than a purist who might otherwise condemn his own voters as deplorable. And this is one reason why I have dwindling hopes that the Democratic Party will be able to defeat Trump in 2020. Instead of adjusting to this new reality, and listening to the electorate, the Dems have moved ever farther to the left, and are controlled by ever-radicalizing activists.
You would think that parties of the center-left would grapple with this existential threat to their political viability. And some have. One reason Britain’s Labour Party has done well in the last couple of years is that it has recognized the legitimacy of the issue. During the Brexit referendum, their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, expressed ambivalence toward remaining in the EU, careful not to lose his working-class base to the Europhobic right, recognizing the fears so many of his own supporters had about the impact of mass immigration on their lives, jobs, and culture. Even someone as leftist as Corbyn chose to be a pragmatist, trying to gain power, rather than a purist who might otherwise condemn his own voters as deplorable. And this is one reason why I have dwindling hopes that the Democratic Party will be able to defeat Trump in 2020. Instead of adjusting to this new reality, and listening to the electorate, the Dems have moved ever farther to the left, and are controlled by ever-radicalizing activists.
You saw it here first.
You even saw us wear it here first. None of this should be
surprising, because it's all playing out as it has been described here
concerning the inevitable division into American and Not-American parties, or
if you prefer, White and Not-White parties.
And before anyone is tempted to sperg, the names refer to prioritized interests, not absolute demographics. There will be Indians and Asians and Blacks who will side with the White party out of enlightened self-interest, as I do (I am fundamentally pro-interior plumbing), and there will be whites who will side with the Not-White party out of stupidity and a suicidal desire to virtue-signal.
And before anyone is tempted to sperg, the names refer to prioritized interests, not absolute demographics. There will be Indians and Asians and Blacks who will side with the White party out of enlightened self-interest, as I do (I am fundamentally pro-interior plumbing), and there will be whites who will side with the Not-White party out of stupidity and a suicidal desire to virtue-signal.
