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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
As for goal posts, they have them in Rugby Union. I don’t believe they have actually moved them the way we have in American football, from the goal line to the back of the end zone.
As for nevertrumpers and their idiocy, that is the best argument against nevertrumpers I’ve heard. Kudos.
I can’t disagree with you there, clearly the rules were not written to hold the result of a primary election as the voice of the party.
But there still is the glaring hypocrisy of holding a vote then invalidating the result when it isn’t to your liking. The real question is how many who participated in this vote will find it meaningful to participate in the future after they are reminded that the rules are only written after the vote?
I can’t imagine a more likely way to tear the party apart than to invalidate the primary. Since most of the never trump camp are convinced he can’t win, why bother invalidate the primary and run a figurehead candidate to lose instead of him?
Its throwing out the baby with the bath…
The only way to avoid acrimony in politics is compromise. How does one compromise their national sovereignty?
We played the University of Edinburgh once. Those guys were dropkicking from 30 yards out.
Looks like press got punked.
About that petition for a do over on Brexit that got ‘2 million signatures in 24 hours”….
Hah! Liberal Media Gets Punked by 4Chan – Petition for Second Brexit Vote was Spammed
Imagine how the (likely older) “Leave” voters feel about what has happened to their own nest eggs over the past 30-40 years! Some of this falls in the same category as the Trump voter “nostalgia” that Yuval Levin talks about in his new book. Older Americans, like these older Brits, are wishing for a time that is now gone, and probably is not (and should not?) return. But that does not wholly invalidate their sentiments, and certainly not their votes.
EJ,
I just got back online. I’m sure most everyone missed this one. I accidently stumbled across it when I hit a link on Drudge and went to the NYTimes.
Hell Is Other Britons
This is the single most pathetic piece of whining I have ever seen. This 27-year-old fool who is employed in a minor teaching position and is the child of upper middle class British parents is perhaps the most spoiled worthless creature I have ever heard. In approximately 1,500 words he says nothing of substance, nothing specific, just an obvious hatred for where he lives (he’s living at home in his parents expensive suburban house), and an unreasoned hatred for Brexit. He claims not to be able to afford an apartment. Of course, what he means is that he is unwilling to live in a tiny apartment or an apartment on the wrong side of town. Yet, in the most smug vague near meaningless phrases, he is sure that his parent’s house, Brexit, and British law are hell. (literally!)
Incredibly, this trivial non-entity has been given 1,500 words to vent his nonsense in one of the world’s premier newspapers. Andrew Klavan calls the NYTimes a “former newspaper”. I think that is premature. It is still a newspaper. I just call it the “Newspaper of the Broken Record”. They are so desperate to print anything that affirms their prejudices that they would print this drek.
Regards,
Jim
Did you read the comments? It’s not depressing that the NYT printed it, it’s how many readers considered it profound.
EJ,
This is a blessing. Idiots can be more easily identified by their reaction to drivel like this. In 1,500 words there is zero content. He merely calls his own country and his own home Hell. I’m quite sure mom is fixing his meals and doing his laundry. The house is probably worth half a million at least. He is an instructor at University in Philosophy. I can’t detect any philosophy in this piece either. Other than bad mouthing Britain, Brexit, and his own hometown this is 1,500 empty words.
The Times has done it again. A new low.
Regards,
Jim
What this fellow doesn’t seem to realize is that his horrible existence was made possible by the EU. This was all he could get while Britain was a member of the EU. A job teaching philosophy and a room at his parents’ house.
If it’s hell there now how could leaving the EU make it worse?
MWA,
Exactly. He wants out of his upper-middle-class parent’s house. He wants to chart his own course and write his own rules. He wants a personal Brexit. Unfortunately, he is such a total product of left-wing indoctrination that he can’t see that Brexit would help him. Instead, he denies Britain the very right of self-determination that he so craves for himself.
Pathetic.
Regards,
Jim
Sire! The peasants are revolting!
You said it! They stink on ice!
Fantastic post!
It is not that their heads are so big but that their underdeveloped chests make it seem so.
Apologies to CS Lewis.