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James P. Pinkerton asks at The American Conservative if the center of the political spectrum can prevail against the right and left versions of populism making headlines in America today. He also wonders if Democrats, who have officially positioned themselves as an alternative to President Trump’s populism, can deal with their party’s own insurgent populists, best personified by the often wrong but never in doubt, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He writes (abridged):
As socialists and nationalists gain strength, the question of whether the center can hold is once again being asked.
In the U.S., we’ve had plenty of rumblings, and yet the D.C.-based conventional wisdom still insists that the center will hold, that the Democrats will stymie Trumpian Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, even as they simultaneously put a lid on Ocasio-Cortezian leftists
Are the Democrats—joined, of course, by the mainstream media and other allies—really strong enough to do all that? We’ll know soon enough.
In the meantime, whatever one thinks of populist insurgents on the right and left—and whether they are seen as paradigm shifters or just hiccups—there are other phenomena around the world to be considered.
For instance, in Europe, there’s the gathering political rebellion against the dictates of the European Union, most notably on immigration. That rebellion, we might note, has extended beyond the Visegrád countries; it now includes Austria, Italy, and Malta.
Read more here.
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