The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Ours isn't the only country plagued by pompous, out-of-touch, elitist assholes. Brexit is a fascinating example of the disconnect between those who feel entitled to run the country as they see fit and are irrationally angered by anyone who challenges their superiority, and the majority of people who may not have gone to Eton and Oxford but have a pretty solid and rational view of their world.

Eternal Brexit

The first barrier to the separation was within Britain. The technocratic classes and the financial community took it for granted that Brexit would be rejected by the voters. When it wasn’t, they had two choices: face the fact that they had misunderstood their country, or label the vote flawed and the result of ignorance on the part of those who voted for withdrawal. Naturally they chose the latter, a decision that is primarily responsible for Brexit’s delay. If the ignorant voted for Brexit, all they needed was a little education in the error of their ways, or so the thinking went. The best strategy, then, was to delay Brexit and persuade the country that Brexit would be catastrophic so that the government could reverse the vote.

The problem was that the technocracy and the financial community were confusing their interests with those of the country as a whole. Free trade had benefitted many, but it had also left the industrial classes struggling as low-wage countries had access to the British market. The result was a near depression in the industrial heartland of Britain. As in other countries, those who benefitted from free trade were either indifferent or mostly ignorant of the price others were paying. They never imagined they would lose the referendum, but then they didn’t know how many unemployed industrial workers there were.

Well..except one man. I asked him what he thought about Brexit, and he said that he voted for it for one simple reason, "I don't like being told what to do by foreigners" (He and I were the only ones drinking beer, which speaks highly of both of us).

My guess is that the correlation between pro-Brexit Brits and Brits who have a positive opinion of President Trump approaches 1. MAGA may roll off the tongue a bit better than MUKGA, but the sentiment is the same. Perhaps Britain is too far gone (and I suspect it is), but at least some are fighting back, and that is heartening.

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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