TO AVOID THIS SORT OF THING, “TRUSTED INSTITUTIONS” MUST BE TRUSTWORTHY, AND LEADERS MUST BE COMPETENT: So it’s a real possibility. “This referendum campaign, as I wrote a few days ago, was not fought on the issues that are normally central to British elections. Identity politics trumped economics; arguments about ‘independence’ and ‘sovereignty’ defeated arguments about British influence and importance. The advice of once-trusted institutions was ignored. Elected leaders were swept aside. If that kind of transformation can take place in the U.K., then it can happen in the United States, too. We have been warned.”

Maybe a start would be to have a political class that didn’t put “independence” and “sovereignty” in quotes, as if they were alien concepts.