Department of Still-Not-Getting-It

Many people still don’t understand why Donald Trump is now the President of the and what that’s probably going to mean. The single biggest takeaway from 2016 is that the political spectrum (in the US and Europe) is realigning. Right vs Left is dying. It won’t die completely but it’s falling into a coma where it’s liable to stay for a while.
The new alignment is still being worked out but the single biggest issue is Localism/Nationalism/Solidarity (LNS) vs Cosmopolitanism/Globalism/Diversity (CGD).
At present most of the momentum is on the LNS side and traditional right/conservatives have been very slightly ahead of the left/progressives in realizing what is going on. This makes it seem like this is a Rightwing movement but it’s…. not. The Indignados in Spain and Bernie Sanders are just as much LNS as Donald Trump. They’ve just been less successful because most of the left/progressives are still pursuing issues that have no…. resonance in the emerging new reality. Or they hold protests without issues.
It’s going to take years for a new status quo to finalize but that doesn’t mean that progressives have that much time. They need to figure out how rework their message or they’ll be left behind.
Clarification: I did not vote for (nor would I vote for) Donald Trump for president. I don’t think he will (or can) fulfill most of his campaign promises. I don’t think all his ideas are worth trying to accomplish. I do think he’s relatively sincere (for a politician).

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