So much for American exceptionalism

It is tempting to assign local causes to what historians will likely categorize as one of the most shocking political events in modern U.S. history, but the fact that Donald Trump is but one puffed-up strongman among many cries out for more global analysis. The most obvious cause of their rise with empty promises is the new global economy, which has sent factories and factory workers packing and brought on unprecedented economic inequality.

But this cause is intimately tied up with another: the rise of religious and ethnic nationalisms as easy antidotes to the anxiety and anger brought on by the jarring dislocations (and migrations) of this new global order. Trumpism and Brexit are both rejections of global trade, but they are also efforts to pull up the drawbridges and wall off outsiders.

Modi was elected on a promise to modernize the Indian economy, but his electoral success hinged on strong support among Hindu nationalists. They applauded him for his role in deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2002 that led the George W. Bush administration to ban him from the United States for “severe violations of religious freedom.”

Before Nov. 8, European and Asian nations wrestling with their own flirtations with majoritarianism and illiberal democracy were looking to the United States as a beacon of democratic values. Now when people look across the oceans to what President Reagan proudly described as a “shining city upon a hill,” what they see is a dark and unexceptional America getting in line behind the vulgarities of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (who recently called President Obama a “son of a whore”) and the naked aggression of Russian President Vladimir Putin.