September
11, 2019
Is
conservatism, as a political posture in this country about to
self-destruct? Conservatism fell from
Eisenhower to Reagan to Gingrich to Trump; there isn’t much further to go, and
no sign of reversal.
American conservatives aren’t alone in declining. The degenerate, authoritarian form has surfaced in the United
Kingdom as well. Recently, The
Seattle Times carried two related articles about the maneuvering
of Boris Johnson which revealed the similarity between conservative politics
here and in the UK.
There the issue is, of course, Brexit.
It forms a parallel with the situation here: rejection of peaceful, organized, beneficial ties to
other countries, the pretense that we can go it alone, an economic
isolationism. The Brexit referendum
vote was, like our electoral result, a national declaration of backwardness,
but Trump and Johnson have gone further, Trump with — among other follies — tariffs, Johnson with a no-deal exit. Here are a few quotes from one of those
articles which unintentionally point out the similarities:
Opposition
lawmakers argue that Mr. Johnson’s strategy is tempting a disastrous and
unpopular no-deal Brexit that could tear apart the United Kingdom, cripple some
British industries and throw the economy into a recession, while setting off
shortages of food and medicines.
We may
not lack for food and medicine, but the effect of Trump’s tariffs on industry
and the economy are the same.
Johnson
has arranged to suspend Parliament until just before his exit deadline,
stifling debate, showing a contempt for the legislature that matches
Trump’s. As a result, “An immediate
challenge to the prime minister’s action has been filed in Scotland . . . . A
former Conservative prime minister, John Major, joined a prominent
businesswoman and opposition leaders in another legal challenge . . . .” Here the UK is copying our tendency to
thrash out political issues in court.
The Scottish court ruled today that Johnson’s reason for
suspending Parliament was a pretext, concealing the real reasons for the
five-week hiatus, and that the move was “unlawful because it had the purpose of
stymying Parliament.” The judges termed
the government’s behavior “a clear failure to comply with generally accepted
standards of behavior of public authorities,”[70]
an apt description of the Trump administration.
The
situation in London is serious. “Still,
some analysts say there are ways for a restive Parliament to regain control —
namely by voting out Mr. Johnson’s government — if only it stopped
dithering.”[71] Does a dithering legislature sound
familiar?
The
second article focused on anti-Johnson demonstrations, including one in
Northern Ireland, where Johnson is blundering into a fortified border (while
Trump attempting to construct one here).
“In Belfast, protesters gathered outside city hall. Brigitte Anton, 52,
said that people think Johnson is ‘a bit of laugh and a buffoon’,“ a perfect
parallel.
She went on: “I think he
thinks he can get away with things, that people won’t notice, or people will be
too surprised or scared to do anything . . .”
Again, the description fits our Leader. “Dictator? I would say not yet
but it is developing toward that.”[72] As to that comment, consider Trump’s order,
by tweet, of course —what a timid dictator — to American companies to leave
China.
The
demise of the Republican Party has been predicted from time to time, and a new
book by Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, renews the forecast: RIP
GOP: How the New America Is Dooming the Republicans; he thinks
that a blue wave in 2020 will shatter the Republican Party. (He is not the
first to use that title; RIP GOP: The Decline and Fall of a
Once-Great Party, by Martin Schram was published in 2017). Greenberg repeated the prediction in a New
York Times column entitled “The Republican Party is
Doomed.”
However,
the GOP has a powerful ally in the electoral college. Predictions by Democrats that demographics would bring them to
power were at least partly delusional and helped to misdirect attention toward
ethnicity and away from economic inequity.
They need to stop helping the GOP to survive by ignoring working people
and middle America.
________________________________
70. https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/scottish-court-rules-johnsons-suspension-of-britains- parliament- was-illegal/2019/09/11/84265a36-d40a-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html?wpisrc=nl _most&wpmm=1
71. Preceding quotes from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/world/europe/uk-johnson- constitution-brexit.html?searchResultPosition=6
72. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/anger-over-brexit-push-without-parliament- reaches-boris-johnsons-doorstep/2019/08/31/89e04762-cb67-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html
