The election of Donald Trump has triggered a thousand questions and much soul searching about America and the future of the west. Here are my initial takeaways based on five days in New York, including election night.
1) Cultural and identity politics are the common thread of instability running through the world right now.
From Donald Trump’s triumph to Brexit and the rise of a new caliphate in the Middle East, the tension is likely to get worse before it gets better. In the US, Trump played on middle class and working class fears about immigration and cultural nostalgia for a bygone era in America. He brilliantly exploited anger about political correctness, especially among elites, including the mainstream media. Ultimately, as in Brexit Britain, identity politics may have “trumped” pocketbook politics.