Brexit: The father follows the son in hardline idiocy

The other day the Wall Street Journal printed a story about people who are “addicted” to Donald Trump and go to as many of his rallies as they can, wherever they may be. Most of these people are predictably either retired or are not currently employed. One person quit his job after inheriting $120,000 and intends to spend it all travelling to Trump campaign rallies. One of these “fan-natics” claims she supports Trump because she believes only his version of the “news”: “How else would I know what’s going on?” According to the Washington Post, Trump has told over 12,000 lies since he has been elected, and the more obvious the lie, the more he “doubles down” to claim the truth of it, or blame it on “fake news”—knowing very well that his fanatics share his contempt for facts. The “truth” lies all in the “gut,” churning away like the fetid material it exits out as. 

What I found most interesting about the story was the photograph accompanying it: a typical white trailer-trash couple who I am certain the Journal deliberately chose in order to show the country just what kind of people it was handing its destiny too, if they re-elect Trump. These people claim they are not racist, but one white woman admitted that she got “caught up in the moment” when her fellow travelers started chanting “Send her back” in regard to Rep. Ilhan Omar at a previous rally. Surveys always show that these people have a heightened acceptance of negative racial stereotypes, and their attitudes about race infect nearly every “issue”—whether taxes, social programs, law and order, healthcare, who is “entitled” to be “privileged,” who is or isn’t a “real” American, and of course immigration.

The U.S. isn’t the only country that has elected leaders whose promise of something “new” borders on the insane. The Philippines elected a president who promised to allow extrajudicial killing of real or suspected drug dealers, and what has happened is that many alleged drug dealers were not so, but in fact just personal enemies murdered to exact personal vengeance. Brazil, as I noted before, elected a president who after just eight months in office is already a cause of buyers’ remorse for those who voted for him. And now we have the example of a country that is supposed to be “superior,” but merely proof that anyone with an English accent can sell you anything—a suggestion I saw years ago in Mad magazine, with some British gent holding up a paper bag with odor lines emanating from it. 

New British prime minister Boris Johnson has always come off as a bit of a clown to those outside the UK, but apparently many people there find him a “refreshing” change of pace. Still, one wonders if he Tories elected him as the successor to Theresa May just to prove once and for all what a buffoon he is—one would hope at least that was the case. Except for one thing: despite his clownish behavior and having no more success at forcing through a Brexit deal going through “normal” procedures, support for his Tory party has actually risen 10 percent since Johnson became PM. It makes no sense, but then again, hardline Brexiters are as fanatical as Trump’s “Build that Wall” fanatics—and for largely the same reason.

What is “Brexit” anyways? Although Britain was an early supporter of the European Union and its European economic integration, it has always seen itself as being “apart” from the continent, probably because being an island nation it seldom felt threatened enough to feel the need to “cooperate” with its neighbors unless they got back more than they gave—ironic, since Britain frequently interfered with continental (and of course around the world) affairs, since its powerful navy gave the island an air of invulnerability. It was this British arrogance and self-superiority that eventually undid its acceptance of being a part of the EU, since companies operating in the UK could freely recruit labor from other countries within the EU, and many native Brits expressed “reservations” about this state of affairs.

But irony heaps upon more irony. It turns out that “natives” were not so much concerned about other Europeans, but people who were not technically “European.” In one of John Oliver’s commentaries about Brexit, he noted the prevalence of racism in Britain; after a clip of one British woman talking about “the blacks,” Oliver noted that racism sounds just as ignorant in a British accent as any other. In June, the BBC reported that hate crimes and other race-related incidents have been on the rise since the passage of Brexit, with one observer noting that "The feeling is that a lot of people believe they have the right to express their racist feelings or to show hatred." In fact, early polling appeared to show Brexit on its way to defeat, but when it unexpectedly was approved, many people saw the “hidden hand” of racism, with suspicion focusing on older voters more apt to conceal their racist attitudes to pollsters—and now those voters are “unburdened” from any constraints. 

Also this year, The Guardian revealed that “The survey by Opinium suggests racists are feeling increasingly confident in deploying overt abuse or discrimination.” Labour MP David Lammy observed that “It is no coincidence that this rise has come as anti-migrant populists seek to divide the country using the playbook of Donald Trump. This has both legitimated and encouraged abuse online and in the real world. I have experienced first-hand the rise in racist content on social media, and the level of abuse experienced by the younger generation makes dealing with this problem of paramount importance.”

Sir Nicholas Soames was among those Tory MPs who were “sacked” by Johnson for their opposition to a “hard Brexit”—meaning leaving the EU without a “deal,” especially in regard to a “hard” border separating Ireland, which chose to remain in the EU, and Northern Ireland, which had to join the remainder of the UK in Brexit. This purging of opposition to Johnson within the Tory party has come at the apparent instigation of Dominic Cummings—who is Johnson’s “de facto” chief of staff, and has come across to many like the evil behind the throne, in much the same way that Stephen Miller is in the Trump administration (Cummings even resembles Miller). Soames has, according The Guardian, called Johnson’s version of the party a “fraud,” and “lurching towards a divisive, potentially catastrophic form of ‘hard-right’ conservatism.” Soames observed that “I am worried about the Tory party because give or take the odd spasm we have always been seen as pragmatic, sensible, good at our job, sane, reasonable and having the interests of the whole country. Now it is beginning to look like a Brexit sect.” And Brexit and racism have become synonymous in the UK—one cannot live without the other.

We have, of course, seen a version of this right here in the U.S. No one in this country should be “proud” of our latest “import” to other countries. With all the uncertainty about the economic impacts of Brexit which no one who voted for it seemed to take into account, some leaders in  Britain seem to be banking on the U.S. bailing the country out with a trade deal. Fat chance of that.