(from a NY Times article comment)

Post-Brexit Britain is a cautionary tale for the US: Britain is a nation whose bad choices made it dramatically weaker and poorer based on lies and rosy-colored dreams of past glory. Under such circumstances it not surprising that people will grasp for scapegoats. The British far right certainly has every incentive to whip up its supporters and try to sidestep blame.

I want to say more about the parallels to Brexit. Trump is proposing a US behind trade barriers and totally self-sufficient in its imperial power—just like the good old days. Kick out the foreigners and we don’t need anyone else. But we can’t be a world power out of selling over-priced cheap stuff to one another. We are a world power because of what we represent at a world scale. Our standard of living and our military power are both based on economic and technological power at world scale. Trump’s isolationism is retreat.

That’s not to say people don’t get hurt by foreign competition (or other changes), but we can’t fix those problems by running away from them. Taking care of people is the real job to do. Hiding behind nativism and xenophobia is Brexit, and just like Brexit it will leave its enthusiastic supporters worse off than ever. And ready, as in Britain, to jump on the next scapegoat bandwagon.