Struggling, like so many others, with the overwhelming sense of despondency at Trump’s election, compounding the lingering depression of Brexit, as one tries to find some explanation for the spreading darkness of the tribal nationalism that seems to be pervading so many of the countries long viewed as the bastions of progressive society, it is too easy to offer the cloak of alienation from the “ruling class”, or even of ignorance, to those who, with their votes, are welcoming the leaders of this regression.

Undoubtedly, inequality, so accentuated in recent times, plays a significant part. However, what is common to the success of such leaders is their cynical and dangerous plumbing of the depths of the most negative facets of human nature.

The veneer of civilisation, painstakingly applied over so many years by the now seemingly distant voices of Enlightenment, ever brittle, has become fractured, allowing those who seek to do so – Trump, Farage, Johnson, Le Pen, et al – to prise open the fissures, breathing the oxygen of negativity on to the malevolence which had been so precariously contained, fuelling the hostility towards whatever factions happen to present themselves as enemies of convenience.

How vital, therefore, that we hold firmly to those tenets of true democracy, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. It is a sad reflection on the state of America that the supreme court has become so politicised. As our supreme court faces its sternest test of resolve, never has such independence been more crucial.

Martin Allen

Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

• The Brexit scenario and the saga of the 2016 US election suggest that archaic systems of so-called democracy are no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. As unconstrained hate, xenophobia, racism and demonstrable lies have become accepted as successful political currency, the apparent result – authoritarian and nationalistic rightwing systems of government and social organisation – conjures spectres of the F-word: fascism. If this does not represent the objectives of the electorate, and is simply a result of democratic “systems error”, reprogramming of the system is urgently needed.

Christopher Whinney

Salisbury, Wiltshire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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