(...)European populists see their enemies elsewhere, and most express their bile in a more circumspect manner. But their rhetoric has the same underlying logic. Like Trump, Le Pen and Farage believe that it must be the fault of outsiders—of Muslim moochers or Polish plumbers—when incomes stagnate or their identity is threatened by newcomers. And like Trump, they blame the political establishment—from Brussels bureaucrats to the mendacious media —for their failure to deliver on their outsized promises.
People in the capital, populists of all stripes argue, are either in it for themselves or in cahoots with the nation’s enemies. Establishment politicians, they say, have a misguided fetish for diversity. Or they root for their country’s enemies. Or—simplest explanation of all—they are somehow foreign, or Muslim, or both.
This worldview breeds two political desires, and most populists are savvy enough to embrace both. First, populists claim, an honest leader—one who shares the pure outlook of the people and is willing to fight on their behalf— needs to win high office. And second, once this honest leader is in charge, he needs to abolish the institutional roadblocks that might stop him from carrying out the will of the people
Liberal democracies are full of checks and balances that are meant to stop any one party from amassing too much power and to reconcile the interests of different groups. But in the imagination of the populists, the will of the people does not need to be mediated, and any compromise with minorities is a form of corruption.
In that sense, populists are deeply democratic: much more fervently than traditional politicians, they believe that the
demos should rule.But they are also deeply illiberal: unlike traditional politicians, they openly say that neither independent institutions nor individual rights should dampen the people’s voice.
(...) The fear that populist insurgents would undermine liberal institutions if they came to power may sound alarmist. But it is based on plenty of precedent.
(...) Liberal democracy, the unique mix of individual rights and popular rule that has long characterized most governments in North America and Western Europe, is coming apart at its seams. In its stead, we are seeing the rise of illiberal democracy, or democracy without rights, and undemocratic liberalism, or rights without democracy.
(...)Perhaps the rise of the populists will turn out to be a short-lived phase, remembered with some mix of bafflement and curiosity a hundred years from now. Or perhaps it will turn out to be an epochal change, heralding a world order in which individual rights are violated at every turn and true self-government vanishes from the face of the earth. Nobody can promise us a happy end. But those of us who truly care about our values and our institutions are determined to fight for our convictions without regard for the consequences. Though the fruits of our labor may remain uncertain, we will do what we can to save liberal democracy.
Re: Brexit - Time to scrap it and start again?
Originally Posted by mongrel
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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- checked, nationalism - checked, not caring about opposition - checked 
You just using empty words because know nothing better?
