I used to tell people American politics couldn't be that dismal and appealing since we didn't have anything equivalent to UKIP. I've had to stop saying that since this election cycle started, because now we do. What I think is interesting about Trump's base is that it's shifting what political axis we talk about. Thinking about the Political Compass and two scales for politicos—one authoritarian-libertarian, the other the classical left-right—we've moved in America from two parties who only differed on the second axis to actually having to have a major discussion about where we want to be on the first one. It should be absolutely terrifying for us as a society, and it seems to already be. We aren't just talking more taxes or not anymore. I think it's a shift a lot of the rest of the developed world has already seen to an extent ( see UKIP or Le Penne and the National Front) and which is the only discussion in the developing world. So, at least, for all it's insanity, this election will be interesting. It's gonna change American politics, but we could probably use a change.
I'm heartened by the fact that the United States is a nation of immigrants and there just aren't any truly ethnic prejudices we can employ anymore. I mean yeah - muslims are teh terrorz and stuff but Islam is a lot more heterogeneous than, say, Hutus. Even when we try to be racist pricks we fumble it compared to lots of the world. Japanese internment was a blotch on history but I honestly believe that we simply don't have the latent capacity for racism and ultra-nationalism the way Europe and Asia do. I suspect that if we did, Trump would be acting a lot more racist than he does.
I don't know if I buy that. On the one hand, a few guys I grew up with joined the Klan and an ex girlfriend joined a National Anarchist group. We have racists as nasty as anyone's, I have known them and I have wondered "where did that come from?" On the other, we don't have parties like Golden Dawn or the British/French National Fronts that threaten to win or actually win elections, so either they're more marginal or the two-party system does some good along with the bad. But I wonder if they'll stay marginal if we have Trump being an openly racist presidential candidate.Even when we try to be racist pricks we fumble it compared to lots of the world.