The Patriotic Response to Populism

If 2016 was the year of reckless populism, then 2017 must be the year of clear-eyed patriotism. The surest way to confront demagogues like Donald Trump, and to manage ordeals like Brexit, is by appealing not only to reason but also to common purpose and duty.

The first step in containing irrational politics, and even turning them back, is to stop whining about what’s happened and start trying to understand it. The whining is understandable, to be sure: Populism is dangerous because it demands simplistic solutions to complicated problems -- and when its solutions fail, the anger is apt to mount. Populism also feeds, and feeds on, the kind of extremism that blames foreigners or other imaginary enemies for whatever difficulties “real people” face.