Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the United States presidential election is seen through an ideological prism: Right beats Left.

It’s more complicated than that. Trump is a closet social liberal but had to wear a mask of a conservative evangelical through the election. That’s where the vote catchment in middle-class, rural and semi-urban white America lies: belief in God, Church, country and family.

Race, not gender, defined the election. Belying the assumption that misogyny slayed Hillary Clinton, 53 per cent of white women voted for Trump. It was the African-American and Hispanic vote, male and female, that backed Clinton. In the end, they were outnumbered by angry, gender-neutral whites, including many Left-leaning Democrats who had voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.

The “liberal elite” that protested violently across America after Clinton’s defeat is neither liberal nor elite. The same can be said of India’s self-declared Left-liberals. A true-blue liberal is both socially and economically liberal. Leftists are not the latter though they pose as the former.

An economic liberal believes in free markets, globalisation, privatisation and merit-based employment. That means no opposition to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), no subsidies to sick Public Sector Units (PSUs), and no quota-based employment. The Left rejects all three. It thus fails the litmus test of liberalism.

The Right unfortunately fails the test too. The RSS opposes globalisation and regards FDI as detrimental to Indian industry. That logic would have passed muster in the 1950s. It is as dated as the hula hoop.

On social liberalism, the Right fails more abysmally. It opposes consensual gay relationships and gender equality.

The Right tilts towards swadeshi on education, language and science, which would be fine if it weren’t self-defeating. Don’t close yourself in an ivory tower built of mythology.

India needs to build an intellectual ecosystem that combines social liberalism with economic liberalism. In India, the BJP regards itself as a right-wing party. So do most Indians. They are wrong. A classically right-wing party—like the American Republicans or the British Tories—believe in free markets. The BJP’s ideological parent, the RSS, does not. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an economic liberaliser by instinct. He hews to the right of the ideologues in the RSS on economic reforms. Some in the RSS in fact have more in common with the Left on economic issues. They instinctively distrust FDI. For instance, they oppose FDI in multi-brand retail, arguing that it will kill kirana stores.

Successful modern societies globally tend to be those that lean rightwards economically (free markets, open trade) and lean leftwards socially (LGBT rights, gender equality). Many right-wing parties do the opposite. They oppose free trade and economic reforms—positions the Neanderthal Left holds. Socially, they abhor gay rights and resist giving women absolute equality.

The Left ecosystem that has dominated India’s intellectual discourse since the Nehruvian era is vastly overrated. Its leading lights expound in turgid, 1,600-word op-eds the equivalent of the sun rising in the East.

Brevity and clarity lie at the heart of good writing. In much the same way, they define the liberal intellect. An ordinary leader makes simple things complicated; a great leader makes complicated things simple. That’s a lesson for the Right and the Left: the real intellectual centre of gravity lies at the liberal-Centre.

The writer is author of ‘The New Clash of Civilizations: How The Contest Between America, China, India and Islam Will Shape Our Century’.