This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.

Across the affluent world — in Europe, the United States and elsewhere — many people are frustrated. They’re frustrated by slow-growing incomes and worried that their country, their culture or their community (if not all three) is in decline.

The politicians who’ve fared best in this atmosphere tend to be those who can persuade voters of a simple idea: I get it, and I’m on your side. In their own extremely different ways, both Barack Obama and Donald Trump conveyed this message.

And in Britain, Brexit turns out to be a very potent way to say the same thing.

[Listen to “The Argument” podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt.]