Capital vs. countryside -- that's the new political divide, visible in multiple surprise election results over the past 11 months.He notes a similar pattern in France's recent first round of presidential voting. Le Pen did poorly in the metro areas, led in rural France. About what it means, he concludes:
This was apparent last June in Britain's referendum on whether to leave the European Union.(snip) It was plain in Colombia's October referendum on a peace settlement with the FARC guerrillas.
In both countries, the ethnic and geographic fringe -- Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Caribbean provinces -- voted with the capital. But in each case, the historic heartland, with the majority of voters, produced a surprise defeat for the capital establishment.
It was a similar story here in November. Coastal America -- the Northeast minus Pennsylvania, the Pacific states minus Alaska -- favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 58-35 percent margin. But the geographic heartland, casting 69 percent of the nation's votes, favored Trump by a 51-43 percent margin.
In different ways, Brexit, Le Pen and Trump seek to counter the university-trained bureaucratic, financial and cultural elites in London, Paris and NY/DC/LA/SF. They resent overlarge and undercompetent bureaucracies and public employee unions, the paymasters of the Labour and Democratic parties. With blunt, often ill-advised rhetoric, they challenge the pieties of the universities.This is clearly part of the underlying truth, described by a keen observer. The balance of the article provides historical context for this type of movement.
Later ... Instapundit Glenn Reynolds calls what Barone describes "Hunger Games politics." Defeat Panem!
