Why does the right seem to be ascendant?

Local community life has withered under the onslaught of the dominance of the mega-states, mega-institutions, and mega-technologies of industrial modernity.

So people are longing for community.

There is a tendency to conflate nationalism with communitarianism.

The right is stressing a nationalist message that they intentionally spin to sound communitarian. It resonates among many people. The messaging of the left seems too statist in comparison. Statist-level redistribution, statist social programs.

The statist, cosmopolitan, internationalist orientation of the left is perceived by some as anti-communitarian, while right-wing xenophobia seems to value “us.”

“We love our American community.”

The true reality is one of masses of hundreds of millions dominated economically and culturally by a small elite, but the right paints a picture of people and families belonging to “our community” . . . within a context where local community life has withered under the onslaught of the dominance of the mega-states, mega-institutions, and mega-technologies of industrial modernity.