After three years of chaos and little to no actual legislation occurring in the UK due to the swirling yin yang of panic and glee surrounding Brexit, an election was held on Dec 12 which resulted in landslide victory for the pro-Brexit Conservative party and an almost certain (perhaps no deal) Brexit January 31, 2020.
As a liberal US citizen I'm fascinated by this unfathomable train wreck and my head is exploding with questions and confusions.
First. Why hold an election of people/parties? Why not hold an are-you-really-sure-about-this-re-referendum referendum? Although Theresa May memorably said "the British people have spoken" (though with a much more posh accent than you just used in your head), numerous news accounts indicated that city-dwelling liberals stayed away from the polls because of their assumptions of the ridiculousness of the measure proposed (leave the EU, really? as if!). (Sound like any election you know of?) We know by experience in our country that liberals famously are sugar cubes who don't go to the polls when it rains... and millennials can't be bothered if they don't like any of the candidates (ever heard of 'lesser of evils', Ashley?). So I guess that offering up a referend-ial mulligan would simply coddle those-who-are-franchised-but-cannot-be-bothered... leaving the expectation of national best-two-out-of-threes every time hindsight causes regretful uproars. Hey, live and learn, Ian, make the effort to exercise your democratic right next time, yer whinger.
Next, my (reluctantly) British friend Paul's analysis of Brexit contends that there is a most sinister result laying in wait for British citizens, authored by the Cheeto in Chief and his cheatmen (wow, that was a stretch) and which history will blame on the good ole USofA. Namely, the dismantling of NHS (the National Health Service). His narrative goes like this: Leaving the EU opens a Pandora's box of new agreements and relationships that need to be hammered out for the continuity of business in the UK. The EU made clear early on that UK would not enjoy a carbon copy of the trade deal they've had as EU members. So they went shopping for other partners -- and who better to link arms with that their former colony and current old-white-brother in sphincter tightening hatred and fear of anything or anyone not in vogue in 1776. Of course, I'm talking about us.
If you will remember, when they first reached westward, assuming an easy back slapping trade deal with the cousins, The Great Negotiator played hard wall and discussions dragged out and eventually disappeared from the media and the attention span of all but the most wonky Americans. What has been happening in the meantime is that Big Pharma insinuated itself into the discussions and now we are somehow tying our trade deal to the (by no means perfect, but definitely democratic) NHS, aiming to impose US style pricing on meds (and other things) in the post-Brexit future. (Have you seen those Bernie vids where we ask Brits to guess how much healthcare services cost in the US?). I mean, seriously, is it not enough that we export Walmart and McDonald's et al abroad to ruin their lives? Is this some revenge play 250 years in the making that we infect them with our total lack of healthcare for citizens? Aren't the Brits lily-white enough that we don't need to ruin them?
And lastly, what do the results of the British election portend for our upcoming election, if anything? Could we take this as a warning that the folks who elected Trump, because they (rightly?) felt their continued pain after the Great Recession was being ignored by the educated legal scholar Democrats, still harbor resentment? Will this be an election where Jim Bob’s decision to take his comatose geemaw out of the home for a day trip to the polls shows his commitment, whereas bankers won’t stand in the line because it might mess up their shoes? And really, will Twitter numbers ride roughshod over rule of law, treason, and precedent? What have we come to?
Obviously, I still believe Brexit will open the door to increased Visa opportunities for Americans in EU countries, on a level playing field with former EU members from the UK. And this will definitely help me in achieving my own personal goals of living and working in Italy. But at what cost for the British people? How do The Donald and The Boris sleep at night?