Centrists politics have lost ground to populist candidates such as Donald Trump. Photo: Gage Skidmore. Flickr. Creative Commons
The Brexit vote in the UK seems to have confirmed the view that ‘open’ versus ‘closed’ – rather than ‘left’ versus ‘right’ – is the new dividing line in politics across the world. Look to continental Europe where populists who despise open borders – for trade as well as people – are marching forward by challenging political establishments dominated by cosmopolitan elites who have backed globalisation for decades.
Look at America, where the presidential election is now a fight drawn along similar battlelines. One candidate – Donald Trump – has made aggressive hostility to immigration and free trade deals his key theme. His opponent Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has spent much of her career backing those deals and embracing the social diversity immigration brings.
