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by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
It definitely seems as though the Americans and the British are trying to on-up each other on political stupidity mixed with needless tragedy. Both MAGA and Brexit are, at their core, self-owns on a strategic level. I’m not British, but I would like to take this opportunity to make my own case for Remain.
As I understand it, one of the arguments of those who say “Brexit means Brexit” is that it’s the “will of the people.” And, yet, as is often noted, No Deal Brexit was not on the ballot. As such, that, in itself, I feel enough to negate any further push towards Brexit for the time being.
I would also note that given how close the vote was and how obviously the whole thing was passed on a series of lies, the need for the consent of Parliament becomes ever more obvious. So, to claim that not allowing Brexit to happen is against “the will of the people” is rather disingenuous on the face of it.
While all of this may be true on a theoretical level, there is problem that if you did put the brakes on Brexit the very forces that caused the whole thing to happen in the first place would pop out again. And that’s an issue that is extremely difficult for me to figure out how to fix.
It’s that a small, organize minority — much like MAGA in the United States — is more than willing to drive the entire country off a cliff for its own selfish ends that makes you realize it’s unlikely that anything but No Deal Brexit is going to happen.
I’ve idly mused about a Very British Revolution that would revoke Article 50. But the chances of that seem to be growing far less by the moment. Boris Johnson hasn’t made the strategic screw ups he would have to make for that to happen. It seems like either the whole thing will be punted down the road again or there will be No Deal Brexit and any catastrophes will happen after that.
It is eerie how similar MAGA and Brexit is. Spooky even. Both are based fundamentally on lies and a fear of the “other.” How either America or Great Britain will fix these chronic problems in real terms is anyone’s guess at this point.