Parker: Disconnect connects supporters of Trump, Brexit

“Ahem, well, I think the answer is implicit in the question,” I replied.

Of course, opinion writers have to write about something, don’t we? Thus, Douthat got things rolling with a recent column observing that the left/right, liberal/conservative template is being replaced with a new divide. In Western democracies, wrote Douthat, the divide will be between globalists (whom he labels “cosmopolitans,” even if, he says, they’re not really) and nativists.

Dissecting Douthat’s dissection, Drezner agreed up to a point, but suggested that one could as easily replace “nativist” with “old” and “cosmopolitan” with “young.”

True enough. Older folks tend to like things the way they were “in the good ol’ days.” But Drezner’s point about the cosmopolitan/young is true because young people generally tend to be more adventurous and open to a larger world. This may be more true, however, among urbanites and the educated class who have had greater exposure to diversity and may be more amenable to a globalist perspective. Indeed, Drezner refers to a YouGov breakdown of the Brexit vote: 75 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted to remain, while 39 percent of over-65 voters did.

They share common enemy

Wrapping up my morning menu was Saunders’ amusing romp through Trumpland to learn just who these people are who support Trump. He came as a reporter but seems more like an anthropologist on a virgin foray into the “out yonder.” He might as well have been studying the mating rituals of honey badgers. Perhaps he was!

Reeling from snarling confrontations between Trumpies and protesters, Saunders escaped across the avenue to an “Old Mexico”-themed mini-mall where, to his surprising solace, a wedding was about to begin, featuring bridesmaids promenading, each with a dog on a leash and wearing a tutu. As reality goes, I’d take the latter, too.

Over the next many months, millions more words will be dedicated to summarizing the hearts and minds of Brexiters and Trumpists, none of whom will likely read the words they inspired. Or, if they do, they’ll feel further validated in their mission to elect Trump. Besides, they know who they are and what they’re up to, which I can say with some authority having actually lived among “ordinary Americans.”

High on the list is sticking it to guys who like to ride their horses high, sneering down their moisturized noses, notebooks aloft and pens poised in the belief that you need a thesaurus and a graphing app to understand human nature.

Trump, by contrast, treats them with respect. He may be a pompous, arrogant, bombastic ass, but he’s their ass and, most important, they share a common enemy — the rest of us.

You can take that summation to the bank — and put a tutu on it.