What Is Going On In Paris?

For John, BLUF:  It is more than Paris, and it is more fundamental that just Donald J Trump.  I think Columnist Fareed Zakaria best captures what is going on.  The elites need to be paying attention or they will be replaced.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The new dividing line in Western politics

From The Wash Post, by Columnist Fareed Zakaria, 13 December 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

For Stephen K. Bannon, the way to create an enduring populist majority is to combine forces on the left and right.  That’s why he was in Italy this year, where parties representing those two sides joined together in a governing alliance.  That’s why Bannon hopes to lure some of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) supporters away from the Democratic Party.  But the next place we might be watching the rise of a new left-right populism is France.

Thus far, the “yellow vest” protests in France have lacked a party, structure and leadership.  But lists of demands have been circulating.  At their heart is an unworkable fantasy, such as a constitutional cap on taxes at 25 percent, coupled with a massive increase in social spending.  What is striking about these manifestos is that they combine traditional wish lists from the left and right.  No wonder, then, that nearly 90 percent of people who back the major far-left and far-right parties view the movement favorably, compared with only 23 percent of people in President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.

The “yellow vest” uprising has also spread to Belgium, where the fragile governing coalition has collapsed, largely over the issue of immigration.  But there again, the protests have the feel of generalized discontent coming from left and right.  Just as in France, the United States and Britain, the movement appears to be a rural backlash against urban elites.

The fissure between relatively better-educated urbanites and less-educated rural populations appears to have become the new dividing line in Western politics.  “Outsiders” feel ignored or looked down upon and feel deep resentment toward metropolitan elites.  It’s part class, part culture, but there is a large element of economics to it as well.

Yes, this is about ten days old, but this best captures, in my mind, what is going on.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff