Daniel McCarthy writes for the New York Post about the Nigel Farage phenomenon in British politics and what it means for US Politics. McCarthy is also editor-at-large for The American Conservative.
He sees Farage forcing the UK Conservatives to become strongly anti-immigration. He argues anti-immigration pols can do the same to the Republican Party here.
Immigration is the defining issue of our time on both sides of the Atlantic, not only in America and Britain but on the European continent too, as demonstrated by last week’s EU elections, Immigration restriction has a popular constituency throughout the Western world, and its voters are impatient with old center-right parties reluctant to take up the cause.
Farage’s strategy is one that other politicians, including Republicans after Trump, can employ. Here the Farage strategy doesn’t require a new party — the same pressure can be applied to the Republican establishment through primaries.
Whether or not populist Republicans win a general election, simply by making it impossible for other Republicans to win without them, they gain leverage the way Farage has.
You could view this column as another epitaph for the Bush-Romney-Ryan wing of the GOP.
