How Brexit and Trump Triggered the Beginning of a Liberal Counterreaction

How Brexit and Trump Triggered the Beginning of a Liberal Counterreaction
Thousands of protesters participate in the Women's March, Philadelphia, Jan. 21, 2017 (AP photo by Jacqueline Larma).

When Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the presidency of the United States, just a few months after British voters opted to leave the European Union, the rise of rightist, anti-establishment populists started to look like an inexorable trend across the West and elsewhere.

To be sure, the twin successes of right-wing, anti-immigrant insurgencies did energize like-minded movements in other countries. And yet, they also triggered another reaction—a paradoxical, if not altogether unpredictable response.

Trump’s win, and to a lesser extent Brexit, made tangible the threat of what had until recently been dismissed as a curious fringe phenomenon. By making the risk palpable, it electrified large numbers of people who disagreed with those illiberal views, but who had remained until then mostly apathetic, lulled into complacency by a sense that the range of possible outcomes in modern Western politics was narrow—that no matter who won, everything would stay largely the same.

Keep reading for free

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

Get instant access to the rest of this article by creating a free account below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:
Subscribe for an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review
  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.