Hint: if a party is heavily supported by people who throw Nazi salutes, it might not be up to much good.

Some voters for new right-wing parties are economically worried, but blame their issues on the influx of immigrants rather than the increasing divides between rich and poor that we're seeing globally. They're looking for right-wing answers to their economic worries - racism like anti-immigrant sentiment - rather than the equitable ones that would actually present lasting solutions.

I think that's partially because the left-wing parties haven't been good at prioritizing those economic issues. Some of the liberal (rather than truly left) parties have used their embrace of other social issues like affirming peoples' identities and supporting intersectional equity (which are good things that they should have been doing!) to mask their lack of action on real economic disparity (which they should also have been working on, but isn't always as palatable to wealthy donors). 

Both are important. We can support peoples' identities and correct historic inequities while also providing real safety nets and taxing billionaires. I think you actually can't effectively do one without the other.

Of course, in addition to this, some voters are just fucking racist. Or they're anti-Islamic, transphobic, homophobic, or see the world through some other noxious hate-based lens. And, of course, you have to be at least a little bit xenophobic to be entranced by a policy based on "these people are not like us".

That's left room for the kinds of bottom-feeders who would like to see more racial stratification and believe in homogenous societies. The people who find integrated, cosmopolitan societies scary. Imagine what an underwhelming, insecure person you'd have to be to be afraid of more diversity or correcting for serious historic inequities. Widening the gene pool of ideas, of lived experiences, and, well, genes, strengthens any society.

The fact is, there's a possible, better alternative, where an equitable distribution of wealth is ensured so that nobody falls through the cracks, but I don't know that it's been offered effectively. I hope we can correct for that. I find results like today's to be deeply depressing.