Totally disagree. The rise of populist politicians using xenophobic rhetoric is the proof that this mechanism is still strong.

Populism

This is as old as the democracy itself, and we still don’t know how to fix it. People are so easily driven by their emotions and stubborn about their political opinions that you only have to exploit cynically their low instincts to take the power, especially in a crisis context. And once populists are in the power, they hardly give it back.