Trump and the destruction of rational consensus
With attention focused on the US election, what can we learn that might throw light on the appeal of authoritarian populism? There is no doubt that what we have witnessed confounds our expectation of what is normal. However bad presidents may have been, none has ever sought to undermine the democratic process itself. None has ever threatened to blatantly cheat a victory. That millions of Trump supporters seem perfectly happy with this marks a terrifying moment. If more than half of the people turn against democracy, it will fail. America was, and perhaps still is, perilously close to that tipping point. The question for us, and anyone trying to understand authoritarian populism, is how entire communities can become convinced that dispensing with democracy is in their best interests? A glance at the distribution of votes tells us that Trump had more support in rural areas than the cities and that less populated areas were more susceptible to his message. We see immediately that