This revolt is the politics of the provinces against the capital cities. These nativists are trying to reassert their cultural and economic interests, which they believe have been denigrated by a political settlement that enriches the elite and provides opportunity to foreigners at the expense of the old industrial and rural heartlands. Let’s call the phenomenon “the new nationalism.”

In America, of course, the new nationalism is best seen in the ascendancy of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The new nationalism challenges our post-1989 political orthodoxies. It questions whether Western governments should continue to facilitate the ever-freer movement of capital, goods, and people. In America, it questions whether the U.S. should continue as an unchallengeable global hegemon, promising to defend the integrity of Estonia’s borders against Russian invasion the same way it would Oregon’s.

If the new nationalism is going to achieve real political power and influence in America, it will be a major paradigm change in our politics. And that’s exactly why it is so dangerous for new nationalists to support such an obvious incompetent and charlatan as Donald Trump.