“College educated elites carried out the neoliberal assault on the working poor and now they are being made to pay. Their duplicity embodied in politicians like The Clintons and Barrack Obama succeeded for decades. These elites, many from east coast ivy league schools, spoke the language of value, civility, inclusivity, a condemnation of overt racism and bigotry, a concern for the middle class, while thrusting a knife into the back of the underclass for their corporate masters. This game has ended. There are tens of millions of Americans, especially lower class whites, rightfully enraged because of what has been done to them, their families and their communities. They have risen up to reject the neoliberal policies imposed on them by college educated elites. The democrats foolishly anointed Hillary Clinton as their presidential candidate. She epitomised the double-dealing of the college educated class, those who speak the feel-your-pain language of ordinary men and women who hold up the bible, of political correctness, while selling out the poor and the working poor to corporate power. And unless there is a resurgence of left-wing populism, which can only occur outside the democratic party, to defy the neoliberal order, we will cement into place an American fascism.” -Chris Hedges
Rant on.
-t
worstwriter 
Further from the same document —
Fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, the “losers” who feel, often correctly, they have no voice or role to play in the political establishment. The sociologist Émile Durkheim warned that the disenfranchisement of a class of people from the structures of society produced a state of “anomie”—a “condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.” Those trapped in this “anomie,” he wrote, are easy prey to propaganda and emotionally driven mass movements. Hannah Arendt, echoing Durkheim, noted that “the chief characteristic of the mass man is not brutality and backwardness, but his isolation and lack of normal social relationships.”
Isolation, gee, wonder if the internet and its endless and mindless distractions (how big IS Kim K’s behind these days, anyway ?) had anything to do with that. Well, yes and no. One of the outcomes of internet connectivity is that the old neighborhood fanatic now knows there are plenty of other fanatics out there just like him (or her). A lot of good connections could have been built as well, but bad usually kicks the butt of good in these kind of ‘contests’.
I feel quite alone around the political center. It would be nice to have both parties move back in the direction of the center. What a world.
Not sure I agree with the political centre being the answer. But I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore.
FWIW. I believe one mistake being made these days is people viewing Trump as a Black Swan who appeared out of nowhere. My take is that the political machine has been failing and sputtering for a long time, maybe since the point at which JFK was murdered, and the “system” decided that it was in the interests of the country to conduct the investigation they did, and present the conclusions they did. (Not that their conclusions were necessarily mistaken … but that exercise left an impression of having been incomplete.)
It didn’t get better after that. Cue LBJ, Vietnam, Nixon, Watergate, the mid- and late-70s that were sort of laid back with Ford and Carter … and then Reagan, the Bushes, and the Clintons. None of them particularly impressed me while they were president. The system had become comfortable in turning out candidates it could control. Obama … mediocre in ways. Some high points, some low points. And now Trump. But IMO not a Black Swan. More like the culmination of decades-long political dysfunction.
My thoughts in any case. But like you, I’ve been an ex-pat for a while now. No doubt some of my perception is too rooted in a past that no longer exists.