Saturday, June 25, 2016

Trumpgret






The media, mainstream and alternative, serious and comedic, have stressed the previous couple of days the parallel between British rejection of the European Union and Donald Tump's support in the USA.  Withdrawal of the UK from the EU is likely to have a dangerous impact internationally, as would election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the USA.

Additionally, as Brian Fung reports for The Washington Post

"Even though I voted to leave, this morning I woke up and I just — the reality did actually hit me," one woman told the news channel ITV News. "If I'd had the opportunity to vote again, it would be to stay."

That confusion over what Brexit might mean for the country's economy appears to have been reflected across the United Kingdom on Thursday. 

The UK's Independent learned

Electoral services workers have reported calls from people asking if they could change their decision after Friday’s result became clear, while some publicly admitted they intended to use a “protest vote” in the belief the UK was certain to remain in the European Union.

The anxiety – dubbed “Bregret” – emerged as the value of the pound tumbled and markets crashed, while somefelt betrayed by Nigel Farage’s admission that a Vote Leave poster pledging to spend millions of pounds supposedly given to the EU on the NHS was a “mistake”.

There seems to be a huge amount of buyer's remorse in Great Britain.  The Independent added

Mandy Suthi, a student who voted to leave, told ITV News she would tick the Remain box if she had a second chance and said her parents and siblings also regretted their choice.

“I would go back to the polling station and vote to stay, simply because this morning the reality is kicking in,” she said.

The impulse to vote in protest is a threat to Hillary Clinton. A significant number of Americans may vote for Donald Trump to register their anger against immigration, stagnating wages, trade pacts, the general darkenization of society and related "political correctness," or the standard boogeyman, "Washington."  

Keith O'Brien visited Cambria County, an area in southwestern Pennsylvania hard hit by decline of the coal and steel industries.  In this region of a key swing state, he found strong pro-Trump sentiment among voters from traditionally Democratic families, many of whom, through good times and bad, have voted for Democratic presidential nominees as well as Democrats down-ballot.

O'Brien interviewed former longtime union leader Terry Havener, whom he believes reflects the views of quite a few other people, and who "in the end" will "probably vote for Hillary." Havener remarks of the prospect of a Trump presidency

"It would be devastating for the country, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "There's a little piece of me," he said, "that wants to see Trump win. So I can say, 'There you go- you got what you want now."

If voters view the election as a chance to send a message rather than to elect the next leader of the Free World, the next President may hold his news conferences in Trump Tower. However, after the British voted, Fung noted

Google reported sharp upticks in searches not only related to the ballot measure but also about basic questions concerning the implications of the vote. At about 1 a.m. Eastern time, about eight hours after the polls closed, Google reported that searches for "what happens if we leave the EU" had more than tripled.

Americans already have a reasonable body of knowledge about the presumptive GOP nominee, more information that British voters had about the implications of departure from the European Union.   In the unlikely event voters in November choose to ignore the consequences, they will find themselves in the same position as many British votes do today as their reality starts to set in.















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