"failure of the elite"

Damn straight. What I find most shocking is not Wilders' own views, but how closely the views of so many putatively educated persons are on a convergent course.

Awhile back, the proposed construction of a prominent mosque was the subject of much discussion. I was frankly horrified at how often persons who I thought were (do I really want put it this way?) (yes I do) better than that rapidly defaulted from arguments on the merits (the whole debate, by the way, had the effect of bringing Turkish organizations further into the civil-society mainstream) to highly generalized diatribes about how "Islam" is radical, anti-woman, etc.

I think that for many, the Wilders-type "defend our lifestyle liberties" ideology is a lot more seductive than traditional blood&soil ultranationalism.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman