The latest furore over Hillary Clinton’s alleged misuse of private emails when she was secretary of state in 2009-2013 has thrown a tumultuous and unedifying US presidential election into even greater confusion, with little more than a week to go before voting day.

The FBI’s unexpected and very public revelation that it is recommencing its investigation into Clinton’s conduct may not be politically motivated, but its timing certainly makes it appear that way. The row represents yet another hammer blow to a democratic process whose credibility has been repeatedly challenged, principally by the unscrupulous Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

Despite this new firestorm, stoked by Republicans and rightwing media, it remains likely that American voters will deliver a clear, possibly resounding, rejection of Trump on 8 November. Although opinion polls show the race tightening nationally and nothing is certain as a febrile campaign climaxes, Clinton is ahead almost everywhere that matters – and she is the sane and reasonable, if uninspiring, choice. A Trump defeat will be richly deserved. As we have noted previously, he is not a fit and proper person to serve in the White House. His behaviour during a long, raucous and often embarrassingly vulgar campaign made that abundantly plain.

Yet consigning “the Donald” to the rubbish bin of electoral history is easier than getting rid of Trumpism. This is likely to take a lot longer. Trump’s platform was based not on thought-through policies and careful analysis but on prejudice, grievance, ignorance and fear, spiced with opportunism. His unexpected success in winning the nomination, despite the Republican establishment’s hostility, reflected his close identification with mainly white, working-class and lower-middle-class voters who, like him, feel angry, undervalued and alienated. While public figures such as Barack Obama, Trump’s failed Republican rival Jeb Bush and Clinton appear to this constituency to be remote, out of touch and uncaring, Trumpism peddles the delusion that the candidate is “on their side”. Again and again, in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere, disaffected voters claimed that only Trump could be trusted to tell the “truth”, only Trump would keep his promises, only Trump could make America great again.

Oblivious to paradox, irony, history or facts, Trumpism projects a distorted vision of American greatness. The Trump doctrine decrees that a nation built by immigrants, that became the most powerful on Earth is so scared of migrant and refugee hordes that it must build a 2,000-mile wall with Mexico. Trumpism holds that a great nation that incorporated religious tolerance into its groundbreaking constitution and bill of rights must now shatter its own principles and deliberately discriminate against Muslims to keep itself safe.

As general concepts, Trumpism makes an enemy of the “other”, equates nationality with homogeneity, calls honest critics liars and seeks to threaten, jail or harm opponents. It says individualism outweighs state authority, as in the unfettered right to bear firearms, but not, perversely, in the case of a woman’s right to choose abortion. Trumpism distrusts and fears foreigners. It believes free trade, international treaties and economic globalisation in general are loaded dice intended to rip off Americans. Paranoid Trumpism holds that long-term allies such as Germany and Japan get a free security ride at America’s expense.

Trumpism admires the domestic authoritarianism and international bullying of dictatorships in Russia and China. Vladimir Putin is a strong leader standing up for his people, national beliefs and way of life. Any inconvenient truth that contradicts this or other Trumpist narratives is inherently mendacious, part of a web of lies and falsehoods spun by the treacherous mass media conspiring with the establishment to dupe honest citizens. And don’t forget: Trumpism cannot be fairly defeated. If it loses, it was cheated for sure.

Trumpism appeals to the worst in people, cynically exploiting and fanning the anger, grievances and prejudices of the economically disadvantaged, the embittered, uneducated and plain ignorant. It appeals to base instincts, to lowest common denominators. Its is political dumbing down writ large. It is underpinned by a pervasive and comprehensible insecurity, engendered across the west by post-2008 economic injustice and social division, the growing gulf between rich and poor and incompetent, unfeeling or corrupt governance.

Fear is the common enemy, but fear is Trumpism’s friend. This phenomenon is not confined to America. European countries, including Britain, experience variations on the theme. In Germany and France, concern about rising immigration has boosted hardline nationalists whose appeal and disturbing ideology extend far beyond the cathartic issue of Syria. In Greece, Poland, Austria and Hungary, rightwing extremists’ evil, dehumanising ideas about refugees, migrants and foreigners in general have become a commonplace of political discussion. In Britain, Ukip, provides a noisy echo-chamber for some of Trumpism’s most divisive, chauvinistic and discriminatory refrains.

If Trumpism is indeed a transnational pestilence, it would be wise to look for a common remedy. But first, the symptoms must be accurately diagnosed and its long-term effects should not be exaggerated. Much of the political turbulence and iconoclasm witnessed of late in America and Europe is the direct result of continuing, negative economic fallout from the 2008 financial crash. Hard times, austerity cuts, high unemployment and low wages are the manure in which political aberration takes root. But as history shows, they sometimes, yet rarely, lead to disaster. When economies improve, generally speaking, so too does the quality of political discourse. Ensuring all people benefit equally from such an improvement is the one certain antidote to extreme politics.

While protest movements share characteristics and aims, it is also evident that they are not all the same as each other. Trumpism is an infection others can catch, yet it is also unique to America. Before panicking about the advance of the far right and far left in Europe, commentators in Britain and elsewhere should remember that, when all is said and done, mainstream politicians such as Angela Merkel, Alain Juppé, Mariano Rajoy and yes, Hillary Clinton do, on the whole, get elected or re-elected. Notwithstanding Greece’s epic upheavals, the centre does mostly hold.

More than anything else, Trumpism will fade and fail because, ultimately, it is a minority pastime, pandering to bigotry, which runs against the grain and spirit of the times, Brexit notwithstanding. Trumpism decries the impact of globalisation, yet globalisation, for all the dislocation and often unwelcome change it brings, is the inescapable way ahead for a more integrated, more connected and more mutually responsible and caring world.

For good or bad, this clock cannot be turned back. Closed borders and closed minds, crude nationalism, trade barriers, xenophobia, religious, racial and sexual discrimination – these are old mistakes and old hatreds that, while still in evidence everywhere, belong to times past. The world is moving forward, not back. In the end, Trumpism and all its ghastly incarnations, dwelling in fear and darkness, will, like Trump himself, be exorcised.