The Tectonic Shifts Underlying the Campaign

Charlie Cook: “Every­one pretty much agrees that this is one of the most un­usu­al pres­id­en­tial elec­tions in his­tory, but the fo­cus is too much on quirky per­son­al­it­ies. To be sure, Bernie Sanders and Don­ald Trump are un­con­ven­tion­al pres­id­en­tial can­did­ates. But this elec­tion isn’t really about them or about Hil­lary Clin­ton either. This race is about shifts in the elect­or­ate that have promp­ted voters to be­have in ways they nev­er have be­fore.”

“The phe­nomen­on is not con­fined to the U.S. We are see­ing sim­il­ar ab­er­ra­tions in Bri­tain, Ger­many, and, to a less­er ex­tent, France. On Thursday, Bri­tain voted de­cis­ively to leave the European Uni­on. Most card-car­ry­ing mem­bers of the Brit­ish es­tab­lish­ment were dis­mayed by this ef­fort, and they warned of cata­stroph­ic eco­nom­ic con­sequences if the U.K. op­ted to go it alone.”

“While not ex­actly ana­log­ous, some of the same dy­nam­ics that are fuel­ing the ef­fort for Bri­tain to leave the EU can also be seen in the rise of Don­ald Trump.”