The rise of ideological tribalism

A British friend of mine recently posted his frustration that although the Brexit referendum was extremely close, “leave” politicians in Parliament are nonetheless treating the vote as an overwhelming mandate to leave the European Union. Similarly, in the US, although Donald Trump lost the election by more than 2,000,000 votes, Republicans across the US are portraying his election as a watershed affirmation of the “conservative” agenda and are moving to implement it in a take-no-prisoners fashion.

Looking at what is going on in the world, it is clear that these distortions of an election outcome by sitting politicians are not isolated “political” anomalies limited to the US and Britain. Rather, they are part of a larger disturbing pattern of political behavior that appears to be infecting “democratic” nations throughout the “Western” world —The Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Canada, etc.