Sinking in the rising tide of #insularity

Anti-establishment is all the rage these days.  The votes for Brexit and the presumptive Republican nomination of Donald Trump are the most recent examples.

It's not all bad news, though.  Taiwan elected an anti-establishment leader who is also the country's first woman president.  Last November, reform activist Aung San Suu Kyi  won against the oppressive ruling party in Myanmar,  although she is unable to stand as president. 

In France, a threat by anti-immigrant, anti-establishment party Le Pen failed in regional elections despite fear caused by the Paris attacks.

In some cases, the anti-establishment wave shows a clear xenophobic, nativist sentiment.  The Leave supporters in the UK, for example, often talked about the immigrant problem and its threat to British or English culture.  Donald Trump has said that he would ban Muslim immigration, deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the border with Mexico.

Unfortunately, the xenophobic tendency in America is not limited to the right wing of the political divide.  In the past, some segments of the left have also supported exclusion, deportation and other policies that tended to blame immigrants, migrant workers and foreign trade for the country's ills.