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The New Rules of Democracy: There Are No Rules Just Give Me What I Want
Affluent lefties react to the Brexit vote. The shock. Awwwwww!
Democracy is an ugly thing. Especially for the losers. The people have spoken. The bastards.
I don’t know if they fully appreciate the American football analogy but Britain’s supporters of the European Union are taking the concept of “moving the goalposts” to new heights.
Even before the vote, left wingers in the media were emphasizing that the referendum had no legally binding result. As far as they’re concerned Parliament should just ignore it. Barring a no-confidence vote, Parliament doesn’t stand again until 2020. By that time more of those old, racist, uneducated country bumpkins will be dead, right?
(At least one Labour MP, David Lammy of Tottenham has already called on his colleagues to ignore the results. “We can stop the madness!” Of course it also doesn’t bother him in the least that the election that seated the current Parliament had a smaller turnout — 66 percent — than the referendum — 72 percent.)
Seeing as one might need the cover of a popular vote in the future, Remainers went to Parliament’s online petition site to demand a second go-around — only with the rules rigged in their favor.
If I get my way 50 percent + 1 is totally legitimate. To get your way you need a super majority. Oh, and since we lost with a 72 percent turnout you’re gonna have to get at least 75 percent.
And then there is the whining about the demographics of the vote. One person, one vote is just wrong, man. From the Twitter feed of Channel 4 anchor, Jon Snow:
The bakery this morning, two 6th formers earning extra cash; In tears to me: "What have these old people who voted LEAVE done to our lives?"
— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) June 25, 2016
Suddenly, it is illegitimate for older members of a democracy to have an equal voice because “they don’t have to live with the consequences.” The next logical step would be the end of the secret ballot so if you die your vote can be removed from the results.
The aforementioned Mr. Snow knows the real reason the vote resulted as it did. If the UK were just more socialist, he writes on his blog, no one would feel “alienated.” It’s not Europe, it’s austerity. Of course, Mr. Snow doesn’t say how much of his considerable salary he is willing to redistribute to the idiots that voted against him.
Louise Burke: The Humanity!
But the best reaction of the day comes from The Telegraph’s Louise Burke who went all Leslie Gore on her readers this morning: It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To!
But this was no ordinary referendum. It will affect so many of us on a profoundly personal level. We have every right to be upset.
(Remainers) are worried about the economy and if they will still have a job, and they are worried if the value of their homes and retirement funds will plunge. They are worried about the growth of flag-waving nationalism and anti-intellectualism and what these things could morph into. (Emphasis mine.)
These concerns are legitimate, scary and personal. And they should not be disregarded or pushed aside.
Ah. See, their concerns are legitimate, not yours. Their concerns are scary, not yours. Their concerns are personal … you just keep your concerns to yourself … you know, uh, personal.
Published in General
The concerns are scary-
They are worried about the growth of flag-waving nationalism and anti-intellectualism and what these things could morph into.
It always kills me when the left accuses us of “anti-intellectualism” when they are the ones guilty of it. They’ve sacrificed academics on the altar of PC and teach our children fact-free history and pseudo-science, and they don’t even see themselves.
Sure, but they are dead right that we think intellectuals’ unfirm hands have unnaturally abandoned shovels let crying disconsolately for the grasp.
Whereas they think intellectuals should be running the joint.
The only problems they have with elections are electorates. We share to an extent in this, but we at least lie to ourselves about it…
Just because it’s fact-free history and pseudo-science, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Being a flag-waving nationalist and anti-intellectual (redneck girl here) it is comforting to know someone is afraid of me!
Titus Techera: … they think intellectuals should be running the joint.
……………………………….
The trouble is that the only reason I can see that they even got the title “Intellectuals” is because so many of them never leave school because they know they’d never make it in the real world. So they stay in the Groves of Academe, either collecting degrees as perpetual students or as professors, dictating to the rest of us from their ivory towers, and rarely even getting their intellects out to dust them off occasionally. My dog is more intellectual than any climate-change parrot or diversity hack.
I said this elsewhere, but apparently the fact that those older voters in this case have also had to live WITH the EU for as long as Britain’s been a part of it doesn’t matter.
Well, ma’am, that may well be, but I do not see America, possibly under the banner of your dog, attacking the people & opinions that have led to Harvard providing so many of the highest creatures running your government–it’s not just that the partisans of big, progressive gov’t are Harvard creatures; but also most government creatures at the summit.
The people who pretend they’re intellectuals are losers & hacks, for the most part–but the people who are winners, not losers & pros, not hacks–they’re the creatures of your intellectual institutions. It’s only worse in Western Europe. Government really is government by intellectuals-
What great opportunity or benefit are people losing by Britain leaving the EU?
It depends on how the leaving is negotiated, no? Freedom of movement would seem the likeliest victim.
Here’s a good pol.sci statement on the people neglected by the high-flying EU believers in AmCon.
For those who may not have heard the song before or have heard it and would like to hear it again. My mother had this song in album form when I was growing up, and I enjoyed listening to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4
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And just because I feel like it, here’s It’s Judy’s Turn to Cry, the sequel to the song above. Guess it remains to be seen if Britain follows through on the Brexit vote, actually leaves the EU, and stays out of it or if Ms Burke is able to sing this song somewhere down the road.
I liked the two songs above, but this one was probably my favorite. What can I say? Who wouldn’t prefer sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows to darkness, sour drops, and thunderstorms?
And with this, my walk down Memory Lane is over for the moment. I now return the discussion to its original purpose. Thanks for indulging me.
Let he who is without off topic sin cast the first 45rpm into the wood chipper.
And of course, generally speaking – and we are speaking generally here about age – older people are more astute politically. Older people have heard it all before whereas young people are decidedly more impulsive and idealistic.
The fact that older people are voting for a significant change – something older folks rarely do, should be noted as well.
“Judy’s Turn to Cry” is one of the great nyah-nyah revenge songs, along with “My Boyfriend’s Back and There’s Gonna Be Trouble”. “Johnny Loves Me”, Shelley Fabares’ follow-up to “Johnny Angel” is a close cousin of the genre.
Re us old folks (and damn, I still don’t enjoy the “us”), I feel gypped, or roma-d, or something. Remember when Democrats loved old folks? Those living knowledge banks who’d lived through the Depression and worshipped the memory of FDR?
My boyfriend’s back is a delight, if now as archaic as perhaps rule by princes…
As for the political stuff, I think the lefties of the world may be committing suicide; or I guess they’d call it euthanasia; or a fit of scientific action; or something.
After all, old people are the future, not children-
This was inevitable. Democracy is very attenuated in Europe. If you don’t get the result the rulers want, muddle some, distract, and try again. Repeat until the plebs get it right. Remember all those ratification votes back in 1992, I think it was?
In another feed there is the story about rounding up delegates to change the nominee at the convention.
I’m all for it!
The opportunity and benefit of ordering and directing the lives of others.
Not a surprising outcome. The Left has no off switch, just ever escalating hysteria.
I know where you’re going but it’s a wee bit different. With 16 opponents Donald Trump only achieved a plurality. Absent an up or down binary vote, more people voted against Trump than for him.
And beyond that, the Conventions are nominating conventions, not rubber stamps.
Also, party events, not national public / Constitutional events-
I’ve always thought that Europe can’t really get the hang of democracy. They don’t and probably can’t understand the degree to which individual liberty is bred in the bone with us. They’re more used to their feudal systems and monarchies where people tell them what to do. I actually heard a British woman on RedEye say with a straight face that “Well after all, there have to be limits on free speech.” Everyone just looked at her.
That’s why I’m so happy and hopeful at the Brexit results. Maybe people are starting to wake up, and it will spread.
Brussels sprouts? I see what you did there…
That is unclear, but there is a serious round of fear-mongering going on. It got started during the campaign, but it is only getting worse in the aftermath. A number of EU officials, in off-the-record remarks, are saying that they are working together to come up with provisions to require in the divorce negotiations to punish the British economy.
The EU needs to make the split as painful as possible for the UK, in order to give pause to the next country that may decide to head for the exit. I am not sure what these pain-inducing provisions would be, whether tariffs or visa requirements or what. NPR had this story this morning and the only thing they mentioned was banking regulations. The EU cronies are targeting the London financial district.
Yesterday the leftists got to display their spots. I guess being so salty made them lose the usual filters, their blood chemistry being so off.
Oh, so when the investment houses that leave London for Berlin are hit for six during the next financial crisis that will hurt the UK… How?