Friday, June 24, 2016

Brexit- RUN TO THE HILLS!

The day after Great Britain shocked the world by agreeing to Brexit the EU, and after seeing the Dow Jones drop 611 points (with overseas markets doing even worse) this seems like an appropriate tune.



I mostly jest. No, this won't go well for the UK as they have to adjust their policies and government (with Cameron resigning and Labour's leader also likely to be gone), and also they'll have to likely adjust to Scotland and N. Ireland leaving the union (which makes sense, both places voted to stay in the EU and they can likely do so as separate countries). But if there's a country that can probably separate itself from the EU and stay reasonably afloat, it's the UK, even if the London financial markets get their asses kicked for a while.

But there's a bigger lesson to be learned, and it applies here in America. Lots of people are living their economic lives close to the edge, or over the edge, and they don't see where it's going to get better as things currently exist. And they're not going to trust some connected elite like Tony Blair to tell them a corporate-based, internationalist free-trade economy is a good thing (and frankly with good reason, because it hasn't been good for most people). The status quo is not being accepted by many, and if people are not given tangible, legitimate reasons to back it, or to reject the alternative, they're more than willing to give in to racism, xenophobia, and nostalgia, and vote in very bad ways. And more than a few people are willing to "blow shit up", because the current system is failing anyway, so perhaps something good can come from the ashes.

Sorry DNC, but Third Way corporatism and a smug attitude of "Well, you're not going to vote for DRUMPF" isn't going to be enough in 2016. People are tired of having smoke blown up their asses, and they will vote for something they can see and feel, even if it's counterproductive to their lives and their country. You have to say WHY something is good or unacceptably bad, because whether we like it or not, fear-mongering alone isn't enough to win for the thinking political parties these days, especially if you live in mostly-white, blue-collar places (aka- much of Wisconsin).

1 comment:

  1. Every supply chain connected to the UK and the EU is going to grind until new contracts are agreed upon. What a CF.

    ReplyDelete