Was Thursday the moment when the rise of the left began to slow…
Thursday’s Brexit vote was big. But it is potentially even bigger, depending on what follows.
Maybe the consequences will be disastrous, as so many “remain” advocates predict. But maybe—if the movement spreads to people in other European countries, who will cry, “We want our referendums, too!”—it will be the beginning of the end for the relentless march of the left in Western Europe.
I’m not saying that will happen. In fact, populist, nativist movements can have a nasty trajectory—and the history of Europe reminds us quite forcibly of that possibility. But this particular movement represented by the Brexit vote is one with which I’m in sympathy. It feels like love of liberty rising in an area that hasn’t been all that concerned about it for quite a while.
Critics of Brexit are fond of saying that supporters of it are “racist” or at the very least “xenophobic.” I’ve written about that “xenophobia” charge before:
Xenophobia indicates a general fear of what is foreign or strange, but it’s really being used here to describe a specific kind of fear of a particular kind of stranger””the kind who has vowed to either kill us or convert us and take over our culture and replace it with theirs. The culture the same people are trying, in a sort of reverse colonialism, to impose on us is not only opposed to many of our deeply-held beliefs and values, but it is intolerant of tolerance itself””except for the tolerance that is extended by the west towards it.
What’s more, Brexit isn’t just about that—not by a longshot. It’s about a nation (and we can still use that word) deciding it wants autonomy in making momentous decisions about its own present and future.
That said, I wonder about the wisdom of of making a decision as potentially momentous as this through pure democracy: a referendum. I’m enough of a republican (small “r”) to ask that question, and to consider that in this country we do not have national referendums to decide things of that nature. British Prime Minister David Cameron made the classic attorney’s mistake (not that he’s an attorney; he’s not) of asking a question to which he did not know the answer in advance, and the people gave him a different answer than the one he was seeking and expecting.
[NOTE: The title of this post is, of course, a riff on this famous speech by Obama.]
The next major thing that conservatives must destroy is the global warming scam. Green power is very expensive in Europe. One would think the people might connect that to the lack of growth.
Cornead,
I read that GB pays much of the money into the carbon emission buy offs the other countries profit from. This is going to be an interesting separation.
Obama’s presidente tide goes out in 208 days. Was gonna write presidential but then remembered there’s never been anything presidential about him.
Accusations by critics that racism and xenophobia lie at the heart of Brexit, simply demonstrate that Socrates’ maxim still holds true; “When the debate is lost, the loser resorts to slander”
Addendum: slander by the loser of a debate is a sure indication of intellectual dishonesty and, an admission that the slander’s argument cannot stand upon its own merits. Where we as a society fail is in having no legal consequence for that dishonesty. Dishonesty must have consequence or it flourishes like a weed. And weeds run rampant will choke out a garden.
In my mind I see the EU, as composed, as a scheme to level all European society and open it up to multi-culturalism. An EU that had as its first job the common defense of member nations and as a clearinghouse for trade agreements makes sense. What the intellectual midgets of Brussels have tried to construct is their vision of an egalitarian utopia. The UK is exiting none too soon.
Free humans must always be alert to the designs of those who would bind them in chains, whether they be made of iron or the more alluring velvet.
J.J.,
After WWII, the theory of “transnationalism”, which posited that nationalism was responsible for wars, gained gradual dominance among Western Europeans. George Soros’ “Open Borders Society” is a direct outgrowth of this theory and is arguably it’s foremost proponent. Soros may also be the foremost financier of the Left. They are the ‘globalists’ of whom some speak.
Multiculturalism is an implicit and critical supportive component of transnationalism.
Sovereignty and borders are critical components of the nation state and therefore must be eliminated for their ‘Brave New World’ to emerge.
So England has voted to leave the EU. The question I now have is, will they be allowed to? There’s already a petition drive to have a do over vote (we’ll have to see how far that gets.) and heaven only knows what they’re doing in Brussels.
KRB
I don’t know how much of a pivot away from progressivism the brexit will prove to be, but it has drawn foaming at the mouth responses from the left and the globalists of the ‘right’. I look at the negative (hate filled) responses as a sign of success.
Excellent comments GB. Thanks.
Open borders — to Muslims — was blowing up the welfare state — impacting the LABOUR voter the MOST.
Since Cameron was a Conservative — he had no ‘touch’ with the Labour voter.
Nigel Farage’s strongest arguments turned on how Brussels was INVERTING Socialism — so that funding was being wholly diverted to illegal aliens.
In Sweden, such funding now exceeds the Swedish defense budget. !!! Yes, it’s not even close.
All over northern Europe, winter hotels are being “Animal Housed” ( per the film classic ) as young, military aged males turn every abode into a ‘frat house.’
Frat houses, Muslim style.
What Landis & Co screened as farce — these fellows spew out for real… especially ‘unlawful sexual activities.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0EAsc-pVKM
Jump directly to 1:30…
In their own words.
Yuck.
Moral savages cannot be civilized, there is no cure, they must be put down, for they are humanity’s rabid dogs. That is not dehumanizing them, for in embracing Islam’s evils, they have abandoned and rejected their own humanity.
GB:
“Moral savages cannot be civilized, there is no cure, they must be put down, for they are humanity’s rabid dogs.”
“That is not dehumanizing them, for in embracing Islam’s evils, they have abandoned and rejected their own humanity.”
That is the talk of genocide, assigning groups of people to be less that human. You may be all wise regarding who is human and who is not, but I doubt it. You are just another human.
To “put down” an animal is to kill it, hopefully with mercy or quickly at least.
How do you propose to identify which individuals are “moral savages” before they act out their evil on others?
Not so easy to do in the actual world. Details, details, the devil is in the details. Much easier to propose “solutions” on the internet.
We’ve had a couple of days to consider the Brexit vote, and I for one see it as more of a rejection of arrogant administrators in Brussels than as anything else. Looking at who in Great Britain voted for leaving (workers) and who voted for staying (petty bourgeoisie) I think they are the UK version of our Trumpsters.
I’m actually pleased with the outcome of the vote. Transnationalists need to learn they are not the wave of the future and the bureaucrats in Brussels need to learn some humility. Will either do so? Probably not, but at least the raw material they have to work with has become smaller.
One other good feature is that other countries are openly toying with their own exit. Again, I doubt the EU can be completely shuttered, and I don’t foresee the reimposition of national borders on the continent, but perhaps the administration in Brussels can be turned into a debating society, especially when Germany sees that they will have to foot more of the EU’s bills.
Leaders like Cameron do not commit classical lawyers’ mistakes because their job is to Lead not debate or cross-examine. We will do better with fewer legislating lawyers, and there is a more than a hint of that afoot.
The idea that Cameron should have known the Brexit outcome suggests that he and others have leading visions, noble or otherwise, of which us hoi polloi are not given true clues. We should just follow, no?
Or its that old shibboleth, faulty intelligence.
Nationalism is supposed to promote “us against them” simply because them is unlike us.
Or, possibly, because what we intend to do to them is okay because they’re them and not like us.
I don’t know. Various wars European wars since, say, Napoleon, have been dynastic. See the Franco-Prussian war. Ended up tweaking the Alsatian border, iirc.
Up through the Thirty Years’ War, and sometime thereafter, much of the fighting was done by mercenaries.
If you wiki, one war will lead to another on hyperlinks, endlessly. Raw nationalism, the population screaming for war against another people, seems rare.
OM,
I admit to the difficulties. To let that stop us is to embrace eventual suicide because while we abhor genocide, those of ISIS’ ilk certainly do not. But ISIS is simply one of Islam’s agents, Islam is a cancerous ideology and one that, given its theological imperatives, cannot tolerate coexistence.
As to how to identify, they self-identify by embracing a totalitarian ideology. I suspect your difficulty lies in an unwillingness to accept what they themselves declare when they embrace an ideology whose tenets are antithetical to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Antithetical in that Islam is at war with us and it is a war “to the knife”.
We cannot win a war that we refuse to admit is being waged upon us.
G.B, I get the theory of the transnationalists. What I don’t get is why they think their theory will work. Where has it been demonstrated?
Have they read any of David Hume’s work. Have they read any Adam Smith? Do they not realize that the most successful form of governance and economic system thus far has been demonstrated by the Anglosphere?
In any culture there will always be a tension between freedom and authority. Complete liberty as desired by the big L Libertarians leads to anarchy. Too much authority leads to tyranny. The need is for the proper balance between liberty and authority which allows people to pursue their goals as freely as possible without damaging the persons or property of their fellow citizens. Of course, the perfect balance never lasts very long because we are flawed humans. There are always those who will usurp power, cheat their fellow citizens, steal, etc. until authority increases to stop their knavery. Then authority often oversteps its bounds as power corrupts those in authority. Life is a constant struggle to balance liberty and authority. When we recognize that, it is a bit like being able to say, “Radical Islamic terrorists.” We then know where the struggle lies and what we need to do.
The leftists miss the point completely because they only want to have the authority to prescribe proper behavior for all. Freedom or liberty to pursue one’s goals doesn’t enter into their thinking. Although they won’t admit it, they know in their hearts that more and more authority is the only way to achieve egalitarianism and multiculturalism. That is why they are so vicious toward those who don’t accept their views and why they despise free speech. Why they are so uncomprehending of the danger of open borders with Muslim countries is quite a conundrum.
Richard,
Established democracies rarely if ever make war upon each other. The nationalism of democracies does not seek territorial expansion. So it is not nationalism itself that is the problem but the manner of governance.
J.J.,
Transnationalism was not born of and promoted out of a rational assessment of history and philosophical reflection. It is immune to reason, facts and logic because it is presented as a panacea for the emotional desperation of societies devestated by war.
Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban believes that the left’s embrace of Muslim immigrants/refugees is a deliberate ploy to attack and destroy European society’s remaining cultural integrity. A ‘Greater Europe’ requires a ‘soup’, instead of the ‘salad’ they now have…
GB:
Funny that the allied powers in WWII (at least the Americans and Great Britttian and the Commonwealth) did not adopt your methods when dealing with the Germans and the Japanese. The Soviets were not so discerning. The western powers did not eradicate all the Nazi’s or all who were members of the Nazi party, nor those who worshiped the Emperor and followed Tojo. Both the Nazi’s and followers of Tojo killed far more people than the current scourge of radical Islamists. And they (Germans and Japan) practiced genocide on a immense scale. So recent history offers examples of how nations deal with existential threats and totally inhumane political/religious opponents.
Going down the road of genocide is not recommended.
Wow! The pitcher left me standing at the plate, looking dumb.
U.K. Must Leave EU as Soon as Possible, EU Foreign Ministers Say
KRB
Frog:
I have no idea what you mean when you write, “The idea that Cameron should have known the Brexit outcome suggests…”
What idea, or whose idea, are you talking about? No one is suggesting he should have known the Brexit outcome. It was impossible to know it. My point was that he didn’t know it, and yet in 2014 he suggested a referendum on Brexit anyway because he (a) wanted to keep members of the party who opposed the EU on board for the election at hand; and (b) he though he could predict the Brexit outcome and that the pro-EU forces would win.
G.B.: “Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban believes that the left’s embrace of Muslim immigrants/refugees is a deliberate ploy to attack and destroy European society’s remaining cultural integrity. A ‘Greater Europe’ requires a ‘soup’, instead of the ‘salad’ they now have.”
Yes, I suppose that could be an explanation. More ivory tower thinking. Twits!
John Mauldin, the economic writer, has some thoughts on what we may see in the next two years. He likens this to a nasty divorce proceeding. Expect a lot of hard core political posturing and actions to extract revenge against the Brits. The wrangling will undoubtedly roil the markets, even the U.S. markets, for some time. (Markets hate uncertainty!)
By the way, Maxed Out Mama opines that we entered recession in April. The gub’mint is doctoring the numbers because of the election so there is nothing official…….yet. She is predicting a long and slow motion recession. If the Brexit causes as much market uncertainty as some expect, the recession could be official before election day. Not good for HRC.
See MOM’s site for the numbers:
http://maxedoutmama.blogspot.com/
Here is a better speech: The Divine Willy Shakespeare’s Henry V!
“Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe0hAbXEpQk
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’
Wow, so much to talk about here. I’ll confine myself to what is not being said here, or anywhere much.
A great driver of the Leave vote was resentment against immigration from the EU, not from outside it. It is about Labour Protectionism, not xenophobia.
Labour Protectionism may be futile (that is a matter for the economists) but it is not irrational. East Europeans are generally liked and admired for their work ethic, but the view in the provinces is that there are only so many jobs to go around, and a Pole behind the wheel of a builder’s van means a British lad on the dole.
The Remain campaign tried to conflate this cold-blooded self-interest with the resentment against Commonwealth Immigration half a Century ago. (I repeat: half a Century ago the Remainers are that out of touch with the sentiments of the Country). To accuse people with a rational case of irrational prejudice is to initiate a dialogue of the deaf.
So this might be a blow against “phobism” (homo, islamo, xeno) the practice of closing discussions by declaring your opponent irrational. We shall have to learn to talk with each other again, because that is the only basis for democracy, or for any form of civility.
Democratic referendum may not have been the best way to decide such a momentous issue but given the intransigence of the elites it may have been the only way short of a revolt or revolution.
What would another method be to allow the people of a Nation to determine if they ARE a Nation?
The history of the UK does have an answer, but it requires understanding that the Crown is the Head of the Nation, and a figurehead Head of State. With that said the Crown must exercise these powers to safeguard the Nation as well as secure it against foreign control. In addition the Head of State role, while mostly symbolic, also has within it the older agreements between the people and the Crown, so that any Parliament working under the auspices of the Crown must be reminded that it cannot make policy in those venues as they are reserved, by agreement, to the Crown alone.
Queen Elizabeth II has been extremely lax in exercising any of the remaining authority that the Crown has not and cannot delegate, and that is an abdication of her duties to the people and the Nation. In past circumstances the Crown has been called by the people when it actively went against the interests of the Nation to secure more power for the State. Thus the changes in agreements are reflected by each new individual coming to the Crown in supporting those past agreements and standing by them. The idea of joining the EU is not something any parliament is fit to take up as it is deciding the course of the Nation, not just the State. The Crown has that role, duty and responsibility that must be much longer term than any mere political movement as it is far too momentous for politicians to make in a monarchy of any sort. Yet Queen Elizabeth II has been lax in this area as well in the realm of firearms where, by prior accords with the people of Britain, past monarchs have agreed to the people who have required that the Crown change its ways to let all people of the Nation be armed. Not confronting parliament over gun laws or joining the EU is an abdication of power, its duties and responsibilities, which then means it is the people who must determine how to be an independent Nation free from the vassalage of Brussels.
Remember that the course to be a Nation is set by the people of the Nation, not merely by the State, which is why referendums are part and parcel of any EU joining/leaving: no government (ie. the State) can be trusted with this decision to disempower local government in favor of a more distant, harder to keep accountable one. This is not determining some mere political piece of legislation, but that of being a Nation in charge of its own State. Really only the Crown can make that decision in a monarchy as it embodies the Nation, by ancient form. When the Crown will not act to defend the Nation and keep it independent, then the people who ARE THE NATION must do so. Luckily the referendum and ballot box replaced blood on the streets in more civilized Nations. That is a big step up from the old way of doing things and going through a sea of blood and body parts to present the Crown with an agreement, take it or be killed, sort of thing.
What it does is it marches security responsibilities to eastward, to far away for western Europe to pretend to give a damn. A whip across the donkey’s back that buckles the train to a false start, left standing in place not knowing were the next blow will come from.
Our progressive elites despise Brexit. But they SHOULD be able to understand it. Currently in progressive media we see daily acres of pages decrying the horrible American majorities that don’t respect sufficiently the various ‘oppressed’ tribes – racial, gender, whatever – and supporting enforced autonomy and turf set-asides for each of these tribes. Social justice demands that respect and those set-asides, and so Brexit is just social justice for the Anglo tribe.
And two wrongs don’t make a rightlo tribe.
“The culture the same people are trying, in a sort of reverse colonialism, to impose on us”
A “sort of” colonialism? More like an actual colonialism, full stop. They come to our countries but want to keep every part of the country they left behind – religion, language, naming conventions, and refusal to intermarry. They want to live in this country and enjoy its prosperity, but remain apart in nearly all other ways. The San Bernardino terrorist was born in Chicago USA, but his parents named him Syed. He, like his siblings, imported his spouse from abroad. The Orlando terrorist was born in New York USA, but his parents named him Omar Mir Seddique Mateen. He imported his first wife from abroad.
Those are not just the norms for Muslim immigrants who become terorrists, either. A huge majority of ethnic Pakistanis born and raised in Britain import their spouses from the old country, and “Mohammed” is now one of the most popular birth names in England.
This is invasion and colonization, plain and simple. We’d be idiots not to recognize that and stop it.
The Left becomes very difficult to track when they span countries, continents, and especially languages.
Unless there’s some kind of common connector, like Soros.
The overall trends and patterns are about the same, such as Leftists being a death cult allied with Islamic Jihad, as you can see in Sweden/Germany. But the specific details are sometimes very different.
This is invasion and colonization, plain and simple. We’d be idiots not to recognize that and stop it.
Indeed, the entire reasons Leftists hate Western colonialism so much is because the Left wanted to be the Masters and enslavers. They were just bitter about losing their time.
Pingback:Why the World Is Rebelling Against Experts