The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
A World in Crisis, and No Genius in Sight
by Peggy Noonan
~~~
. Pandering liar-Clinton Steals From Sanders' Playbook
It was inevitable; the only question was when liar-Hillary Clinton's new and "improved" tuition overhaul would be revealed. In an obvious pander to Bernie Sanders supporters — which is to say, in a worthwhile attempt to rally the young adults who nearly derailed her 2016 presidential campaign — "liar-Clinton has announced a plan to make debt-free college available to everyone," according to a Wednesday announcement.
"Under her plan," liar-Clinton's campaign website explains, "every student will have the opportunity to graduate from an in-state four-year public college or university without taking on any student debt. Families with incomes up to $125,000 will pay no tuition at in-state public colleges and universities, which covers more than 80 percent of families. The plan will be phased in over five years, but families earning $85,000 or less will immediately be able to attend an in-state college or university without paying any tuition. As president, liar-Hillary will also take executive action to give borrowers a 3-month moratorium on their federal student loan payments."
Bernie Sanders pledged on his own website to "fight to make sure that every American who studies hard in school can go to college regardless of how much money their parents make and without going deeply into debt." And while The Hill notes "[t]he new liar-Clinton plan does not go as far as one proposed by Sanders," it's clearly intended to procure the votes of college-aged snowflakes. The proposal quickly garnered Sanders' blessing: "I want to take this opportunity to applaud Secretary liar-Clinton for the very bold initiative she has just brought forth today for the financing of higher education. ... The final product is a result of the work of both campaigns."
nObama unveiled his own "free" community college plan in January 2015, the cost of which is a lowball estimate of $60 billion over 10 years. That's chump change compared to the estimated cost of Sanders' proposal — $75 billion annually. Predictably, liar-Clinton's grandiose rollout did not include a price tag, but it's assuredly more than nObama's and probably not too far from Sanders'. When it comes to government programs, "free" and "taxpayer-funded" are interchangeable terms. The bottom line is that middle class Americans are the hardest hit. liar-Clinton's plan also proves that her and Sanders really aren't all that different. Socialism and liberalism go hand in hand. -The Patriot Post
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Government Has Earned Distrust
Allyne Caan: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." At one time, people may have believed this statement, though by the time of Ronald Reagan, it was the punchline of a joke. Indeed, any government worker silly enough to utter it would find uproarious laughter in his wake.
Certainly, a large swath of Americans still look to Uncle Sam to solve their problems, pay for their college, give them free health care, find them a job, and guarantee a safe space where they'll never be offended. But these self-made serfs can't cover the fact that trust in government is falling — and fast — not just here in America but around the world.
Edelman, one of the leading global communications and public relations companies, has been tracking trust for 16 years, surveying the faith individuals around the world place in businesses, the media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government. Not surprisingly, as company head Richard Edelman explains, people today are much more likely to trust a friend or peer — including a Facebook friend — than they are to trust a government leader. "We have a reversal of traditional influence," he says. "It is going not top-down, but sideways."
Frankly, that's as it should be. But it rarely seems to result in voters voting for smaller government.
The Edelman study distinguishes between the "informed public" and "general population," the former being college degree holders who are regular media consumers and in the top 25% of household income for their age demographic. Perhaps ironically, among this group, trust in government is generally higher than among the "general population." Then again, elites trusting elites isn't surprising at all.
The Pew Research Center confirms the plunging trust, noting that while trust in Washington topped 75% in the 1960s, by late 2015 it had fallen to about 20%. (We might note that the high trust in the '60s led to massive government expansion under the "Great Society," so perhaps distrust will lead to better things.)
Meanwhile, the 2008 financial crisis, which Barack nObama and Democrats blamed on everything but government, may actually be responsible for falling trust in government among the general public.
As The Atlantic explains, "The 2008 financial crisis, [Edelman] argued, produced widespread suspicion that elites only act in their own interests ... and that elites don't necessarily have access to better information than the rest of the population does. The sluggish, unequal recovery from that crisis — the wealthy bouncing back while many others struggle with stagnant incomes — has only increased the skepticism."
The Atlantic blames this global distrust of government for everything from Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump.
Far from an indictment of the general population, however, this falling trust is an indictment of the government. As John Davidson logically concludes, it's little wonder Americans don't trust the government given the decision not to prosecute liar-Hillary Clinton. Davidson writes, "The populist wave that elevated Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders ... has been pushed along by a growing sense that our elites do what they want and our institutions are unable or unwilling to check them. Institutional failure has perhaps played a greater role in this than the behavior of the elites themselves."
Indeed, one need not look far to find examples. There's the IRS targeting of conservatives, the VA scandal, the DOJ spying on reporters, Supreme Court Justice John Robert's rewriting nObamaCare to find it constitutional and, most recently, the FBI announcing liar-Hillary Clinton is above the law — all while FBI Director James Comey admitted that other little people "who engaged in this activity" would face consequences.
Yet while the Republic crumbles — and let's not sugar-coat it, it is crumbling — nObama is busy dictating bathroom policies in schools and the military. This is exactly what he meant when he threatened to fundamentally transform America.
It's not too late to save our Ship of State, but to do so, we must admit it is sinking — not in danger of sinking, actually sinking.
Thomas Jefferson warned, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
James Madison likewise cautioned, "The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."
Thus for good reason our Founders established a constitutionally limited government, and for good reason they pledged to uphold our independence with "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." They weren't fooled into believing Liberty could be preserved at any other price.
As we continue the fight today, let us not be fooled into thinking the price for us will be any less. -The Patriot Post
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You can thank these 20 Republicans for Loretta Lynch
by Chris Pandolfo
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{conservativereview.com} ~ This was a bad week for justice and the rule of law. Tuesday, FBI Director Comey made his official recommendation to not bring charges against liar-Hillary Clinton and subsequently on Wednesday... Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted that recommendation. She then made the official announcement that the Department of Justice is closing its investigation into liar-Clinton's emails. As Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin explained Tuesday, a special prosecutor should’ve been appointed from the beginning because the nObama administration, and nObama’s appointee Loretta Lynch, never intended to prosecute liar-Clinton... https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/07/20-republicans-are-responsible-for-loretta-lynch
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Uranium Particles at Parchin Indicate
Possible Undeclared Iranian Nuclear Activities
by Olli Heinonen
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{defenddemocracy.org} ~ On December 2, 2015, the IAEA issued its assessment on past and present outstanding issues related to Iran’s nuclear program and its Possible Military Dimensions (PMD). Buried in a footnote is a crucial detail... the presence of man-made uranium particles at the Parchin military complex. Last week, The Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon reported U.S. officials saying those particles likely relate to previous nuclear weapons activities, thereby raising even more questions. For example, where is the nuclear material used for those nuclear weapons activities, and what is the source of the particles found at Parchin? The question of whether Iran still has undeclared nuclear material is therefore critical. Since 2004, the IAEA has sought answers from Iran on PMD. A key focus of these investigations was hydrodynamic testing in a high-explosives test chamber at Parchin, according to information provided to the Agency. Iran granted the IAEA access to the facility twice in 2005, but the IAEA was unaware of information that subsequently surfaced on high-explosive tests... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/olli-heinonen1-uranium-particles-at-parchin-indicate-possible-undeclared-iranian-nuclear-a/
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Marine to use findings in liar-Clinton email
case to challenge his own punishment
by Maria Biery
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ A Marine Corps officer, who received a potential career-ending fitness report for sending classified messages on a personal email server... will be citing the latest decision on liar-Hillary Clinton's email scandal to fight his punishment, according to a report on Thursday. Reservist Maj. Jason Brezler self-reported that he had used a Yahoo! email account to send classified messages to warn about a potentially corrupt Afghan police chief in July of 2012. Seventeen days later, Ainuddin Khudairaham, a servant of the police officer that Brezler warned about, shot and killed three Marines. Another Marine was severely wounded a couple days later... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/marine-to-use-findings-in-clinton-email-case-to-challenge-his-own-punishment/article/2595847
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GOP on nObamacare payments:
'This is stealing from the American people'
by Robert King
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Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ House lawmakers lashed out at the nObama administration Thursday, arguing that officials knowingly circumvented Congress to get $7 billion for nObamacare... The House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on the funding surrounding nObamacare's cost-sharing reduction payments, which pay down copays and deductibles. The committee, and the Energy & Commerce Committee, issued a report Thursday that said the administration didn't get a congressional appropriation for the payments, as required by law. "Congress has never provided an appropriation for it. The administration knew this and didn't care," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the committee chairman. "This is stealing from the American people."...He broke the law. What are you going to do Congress? http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-on-obamacare-payments-this-is-stealing-from-the-american-people/article/2595841
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Ryan Moves For “Appropriate Sanctions”
Against liar-Hillary Clinton
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{conservativetribune.com} ~ Former Secretary of State liar-Hillary Clinton thought when FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that the FBI would not recommend an indictment to the Department of Justice that her private email server troubles were behind her and she could move on... She was very wrong. Thursday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan Thursday formally requested that the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee be denied classified information briefings, which are given to both nominees, because the FBI labeled her as “careless,” The Hill reported. “As a former vice presidential nominee, I am keenly aware that Secretary liar-Clinton is set to begin receiving classified intelligence briefings after the Democratic National Convention,” Ryan wrote. “Given the FBI’s findings, denying Secretary liar-Clinton access to classified information certainly constitutes appropriate sanctions.” In other bad news for liar-Clinton, The Hill also reported that a bill had been introduced in the Senate to strip liar-Clinton of her security clearance as punishment for what she did... http://conservativetribune.com/hillary-just-got-terrible-news/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=ConservativeBrief&utm_content=2016-07-08
{conservativetribune.com} ~ Former Secretary of State liar-Hillary Clinton thought when FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that the FBI would not recommend an indictment to the Department of Justice that her private email server troubles were behind her and she could move on... She was very wrong. Thursday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan Thursday formally requested that the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee be denied classified information briefings, which are given to both nominees, because the FBI labeled her as “careless,” The Hill reported. “As a former vice presidential nominee, I am keenly aware that Secretary liar-Clinton is set to begin receiving classified intelligence briefings after the Democratic National Convention,” Ryan wrote. “Given the FBI’s findings, denying Secretary liar-Clinton access to classified information certainly constitutes appropriate sanctions.” In other bad news for liar-Clinton, The Hill also reported that a bill had been introduced in the Senate to strip liar-Clinton of her security clearance as punishment for what she did... http://conservativetribune.com/hillary-just-got-terrible-news/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=ConservativeBrief&utm_content=2016-07-08
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ISIS Envy in Dallas
by Roger L. Simon
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{pjmedia.com} ~ For the first time in my life today, I was nervous taking a morning stroll down the streets of New York—well, if not completely scared, at least seriously tense... And this was 8 a.m. or so in a decent neighborhood, Amsterdam in the eighties to be exact. Admittedly, I was feeling a little jet lagged and not quite myself, just having returned from Europe last night. But the news on arrival that five cops had been slaughtered in Dallas my plane didn't have Wi-Fi was almost unbearable after having endured the "exoneration" of liar-Hillary Clinton while I was away. What country is this? What world? While taking that walk, looking at people on the sidewalks wondering what they were thinking and/or about to do—everyone appeared to be on edge, even babies in prams—the connection between the Dallas attacks and the terrorism we have been experiencing from Orlando to San Bernardino was palpable, motivated by similar irrational hatreds, religious and racial. It was part of the zeitgeist. The truth was clear and it was truly ugly and depressing: the raging Dallas cop killers suffered from ISIS Envy. Whether consciously or not, they wanted to be like ISIS. It was almost clinical, not far from all those other Freudian envies... https://pjmedia.com/diaryofamadvoter/2016/07/08/isis-envy-in-dallas/
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liar-Clinton Calls Cops Racists, Wants
Federal Nationalized Police Force
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ The script was written two years ago, likely in the days prior to Ferguson with Hussein nObama and Eric Holder detailing how they would make racial division a tool for advancing their agenda and winning the 2016 election... The general strategy was developed long before that, probably as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Having only a record of big government failure, domestic collapse and foreign policy humiliation and weakness to run on, the community organizer squatting in our White House and his Marxist underlings embarked on a plan to discredit the Constitution and our self-government model through accusations of unfairness and bigotry. They then created victims groups of anyone who wasn’t white, utilizing the Democrat-impoverished black Americans, and greatly accelerating decades of the importation of illegal aliens across open borders as well as legal immigration, including often-dangerous Muslims. The supposed goal is the false ideal of “diversity.” The actual result is balkanization, insecurity and cultural degradation. The natural reaction to these threats to our prosperity and security provides them with the exploitable xenophobic and racist ammunition they are all too willing to distort for political advantage...
VIDEO: at the site
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Democrats: Pass at least two constitutional changes
by Rudy Takala
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ The Democratic Party's proposed platform is calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn at least two Supreme Court decisions related to campaign finance, and another to ensure "equal rights."... Referring to the Constitution as simply a "blueprint for progress," the platform states, Democrats seek to overturn Buckley v. Valeo, the 1976 decision striking down campaign spending limits, and Citizens United, the 2010 decision that extended press freedom to corporations, labor unions and other associations. "We need to end secret, unaccountable money in politics by requiring, through executive order or legislation, significantly more disclosure and transparency—by outside groups, federal contractors, and public corporations to their shareholders," the proposed platform states...We don't need another executive order to change things. Vote it down. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/democrats-pass-at-least-two-constitutional-changes/article/2595491?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Watchdog&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Watchdog%20-%2007/08/16&utm_medium=email
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liar-Hillary Tries to Get Personal
by Brian Lilley
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{truthrevolt.org) ~ Faced with polls showing voters simply don't trust her, liar-Hillary Clinton may be trying a new tactic to win over the skeptics - blaming someone other than Republicans and the "vast right-wing conspiracy" for her problems... The New York Times reports that liar-Clinton is looking inward. Last week, speaking to a sympathetic crowd in Chicago, she also pointed a finger in a surprising new direction: at herself. “I personally know I have work to do on this front; a lot of people tell pollsters they don’t trust me,” Mrs. liar-Clinton said in a speech to the Rainbow/Push Coalition on June 27. “It is certainly true I have made mistakes,” she said a moment later, adding, “So I understand people having questions.”...She should of been indicted.
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State Department Resumes
liar-Hillary Clinton Email Probe
by Sarah Fisher
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ The State Department has reopened its investigation into how classified information was handled by liar-Hillary Clinton and her aides... The investigation "focuses on how classified emails to and from liar-Clinton's private server were categorized at the time they were sent." The State Department had started an investigation back in January when 22 emails on liar-Clinton's email server were designated "top secret." The agency put its investigation on hold when the FBI started its investigation into liar-Clinton's homebrewed email system. On Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced there would be no charges filed against the former Secretary of State...Don't let Comey or Lynch hold you back from investigating liar-Hillary. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/state-department-resumes-hillary-clinton-email-probe
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A World in Crisis, and No Genius in Sight
by Peggy Noonan
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{peggynoonan.com} ~ The leaders of the world aren’t a very impressive group right now. There’s a sense with some of them of playing out a historical or cultural string, that they’re placeholders in some way. Many are young, yet so much around them feels tired.
Which has me thinking, again, of the concept of the genius cluster. They happen in history and no one knows why. It was a genius cluster that invented America. Somehow Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, Jay and Monroe came together in the same place at the same time and invented something new in the history of man. I asked a great historian about it once. How did that happen? He’d thought about it too. “Providence,” he guessed.
There was a small genius cluster in World War II—FDR, Churchill, de Gaulle. I should note I’m speaking of different kinds of political genius. There was a genius cluster in the 1980s— John Paul II, Reagan, Thatcher, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Lee Kuan Yew in his last decade of leadership in Singapore.
The military genius cluster of World War II—Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bull Halsey, Stilwell—almost rivaled that of the Civil War—Grant, Lee, Stonewall, Sherman, Sheridan, Longstreet.
Obviously genius clusters require deep crises, otherwise their gifts are not revealed. Historic figures need historic circumstances. Also members of genius clusters tend to pursue shared goals.
We have those conditions now—the crises, and what should be shared goals.
Everything feels upended, the old order that has governed things for 70 years since World War II being swept away. Borders have disappeared before our eyes. Terrorism, waves of immigration transforming whole nations, Islam at war with itself and parts of it at war with the world. In the West, the epochal end of public faith in institutions, and a dreadful new tension between the leaders and the led. In both background and foreground is a technological revolution that has actually changed how people experience life.
It is a world crying out for bigness, wisdom, steady hands and steady eyes.
We could use a genius cluster.
I’m not quite seeing its members coming, are you? Maybe they’re off somewhere gaining strength. But the point we’re in feels more like what a Hollywood director said was the central tension at the heart of all great westerns: “The villain has arrived while the hero is evolving.”
Let’s hope some evolve soon.
This thought is inspired by the past week’s Brexit aftermath. To limit criticism to the political players, the European Union did not distinguish itself, the British government didn’t even create a contingency plan in case Leave won, and the victors actually scrammed while markets convulsed and the pound fell. When Leave leader Boris Johnson finally did speak, what he said was astonishing.
The vote was significant, he wrote in the Telegraph, but shouldn’t be misunderstood: “It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so.” Instead they had “a sense that British democracy was being undermined.” The public wanted to seize back some control.
Well, yes. But immigration was very much part of the seize-back-control story. It’s in all the polls.
Then: “And yet we who agreed with this majority verdict must accept that it was not entirely overwhelming.”
It was 52% to 48%, not huge but decisive enough. And wait a second, “we who agreed” with the verdict? He led the campaign! He didn’t “agree” with the outcome, he was its most prominent advocate!
Whatever changes come, he added, they “will not come in any great rush.”
There’s a line between calming markets and undermining your cause. He crossed it.
What a failure of nerve. It likely contributed to the restiveness that led the other main Leave proponent, Michael Gove, to bolt away from Mr. Johnson and announce he would run to replace Prime Minister David Cameron.
Contrast what Mr. Johnson wrote with the statement, days later, of Home Secretary Theresa May, who had been pro-Remain though relatively quietly, certainly relative to Mr. Johnson. “Brexit means Brexit,” she said. “The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum.”
“Politics,” she added, “isn’t a game.”
Thank you, madam, and well done.
Ms. May is a moderate conservative with a steady hand who is said to be somewhat ideologically opaque. But here she was blunt and clear. More, she seemed to intuit the damage to be done to the public’s trust if Parliament threw the decision back in its face. Part of politics is simply knowing what people need when they need it. In this case it was the unambiguous taking of a stand.
In the end, Mr. Johnson bowed out of the contest for party leader. He is a witty and clever man, a showman who may have more lives than a cat. But he won’t be part of a genius cluster anytime soon.
EU leadership since the referendum has been wholly lacking. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” purred European Council president Donald Tusk, quoting Nietzsche.
In this case what doesn’t kill you this time will likely kill you next, so you might want to wake up.
The EU should be supple now, not brittle and predictable, which is to say bureaucratically brutal. It should surprise the world and demonstrate some give. It should grant Britain a relatively smooth exit. Let people see the decency and constructiveness of it and come to doubt their own antipathy. You’re not such a bad lot. Strategic pliancy would actually be an assertion of strength. If the European Union is a prison, as Brexit supporters felt, it makes sense for the warden to make an example of Britain to keep the other inmates in line. But if the EU is a place of peaceful commerce it has an opportunity to show it. Take it. The Brits aren’t the only ones who hate you.
The EU was founded for one great reason: to redirect the energies of a continent twice convulsed by world war and turn them to peaceful pursuits—trading goods, making money, each nation knowing the other in a context of constructiveness. It succeeded! But in the past 30 years it expanded, took on more power and authority, made more demands, fell too in love with its ability to apply limits. Even during the Brexit debate the EU’s conversation was not of devolving power to member states but taking more to Brussels. As Boris Johnson noted in March, when he seemed to remember such things, the result, in Britain, was public alienation, which contributed to a sense of “disengagement,” which has contributed to “the rise of extremist parties.”
That was an accurate diagnosis. I add only that the EU inculcated in its officials and apparatchiks an outrageous and insular snobbery that left them incapable of seeing critics as anything but ignorant, racist knuckle-draggers. They noticed, didn’t like it, and rebelled when they could.
Here’s to rebellion. Happy 4th.
Which has me thinking, again, of the concept of the genius cluster. They happen in history and no one knows why. It was a genius cluster that invented America. Somehow Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, Jay and Monroe came together in the same place at the same time and invented something new in the history of man. I asked a great historian about it once. How did that happen? He’d thought about it too. “Providence,” he guessed.
There was a small genius cluster in World War II—FDR, Churchill, de Gaulle. I should note I’m speaking of different kinds of political genius. There was a genius cluster in the 1980s— John Paul II, Reagan, Thatcher, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Lee Kuan Yew in his last decade of leadership in Singapore.
The military genius cluster of World War II—Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bull Halsey, Stilwell—almost rivaled that of the Civil War—Grant, Lee, Stonewall, Sherman, Sheridan, Longstreet.
Obviously genius clusters require deep crises, otherwise their gifts are not revealed. Historic figures need historic circumstances. Also members of genius clusters tend to pursue shared goals.
We have those conditions now—the crises, and what should be shared goals.
Everything feels upended, the old order that has governed things for 70 years since World War II being swept away. Borders have disappeared before our eyes. Terrorism, waves of immigration transforming whole nations, Islam at war with itself and parts of it at war with the world. In the West, the epochal end of public faith in institutions, and a dreadful new tension between the leaders and the led. In both background and foreground is a technological revolution that has actually changed how people experience life.
It is a world crying out for bigness, wisdom, steady hands and steady eyes.
We could use a genius cluster.
I’m not quite seeing its members coming, are you? Maybe they’re off somewhere gaining strength. But the point we’re in feels more like what a Hollywood director said was the central tension at the heart of all great westerns: “The villain has arrived while the hero is evolving.”
Let’s hope some evolve soon.
This thought is inspired by the past week’s Brexit aftermath. To limit criticism to the political players, the European Union did not distinguish itself, the British government didn’t even create a contingency plan in case Leave won, and the victors actually scrammed while markets convulsed and the pound fell. When Leave leader Boris Johnson finally did speak, what he said was astonishing.
The vote was significant, he wrote in the Telegraph, but shouldn’t be misunderstood: “It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so.” Instead they had “a sense that British democracy was being undermined.” The public wanted to seize back some control.
Well, yes. But immigration was very much part of the seize-back-control story. It’s in all the polls.
Then: “And yet we who agreed with this majority verdict must accept that it was not entirely overwhelming.”
It was 52% to 48%, not huge but decisive enough. And wait a second, “we who agreed” with the verdict? He led the campaign! He didn’t “agree” with the outcome, he was its most prominent advocate!
Whatever changes come, he added, they “will not come in any great rush.”
There’s a line between calming markets and undermining your cause. He crossed it.
What a failure of nerve. It likely contributed to the restiveness that led the other main Leave proponent, Michael Gove, to bolt away from Mr. Johnson and announce he would run to replace Prime Minister David Cameron.
Contrast what Mr. Johnson wrote with the statement, days later, of Home Secretary Theresa May, who had been pro-Remain though relatively quietly, certainly relative to Mr. Johnson. “Brexit means Brexit,” she said. “The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum.”
“Politics,” she added, “isn’t a game.”
Thank you, madam, and well done.
Ms. May is a moderate conservative with a steady hand who is said to be somewhat ideologically opaque. But here she was blunt and clear. More, she seemed to intuit the damage to be done to the public’s trust if Parliament threw the decision back in its face. Part of politics is simply knowing what people need when they need it. In this case it was the unambiguous taking of a stand.
In the end, Mr. Johnson bowed out of the contest for party leader. He is a witty and clever man, a showman who may have more lives than a cat. But he won’t be part of a genius cluster anytime soon.
EU leadership since the referendum has been wholly lacking. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” purred European Council president Donald Tusk, quoting Nietzsche.
In this case what doesn’t kill you this time will likely kill you next, so you might want to wake up.
The EU should be supple now, not brittle and predictable, which is to say bureaucratically brutal. It should surprise the world and demonstrate some give. It should grant Britain a relatively smooth exit. Let people see the decency and constructiveness of it and come to doubt their own antipathy. You’re not such a bad lot. Strategic pliancy would actually be an assertion of strength. If the European Union is a prison, as Brexit supporters felt, it makes sense for the warden to make an example of Britain to keep the other inmates in line. But if the EU is a place of peaceful commerce it has an opportunity to show it. Take it. The Brits aren’t the only ones who hate you.
The EU was founded for one great reason: to redirect the energies of a continent twice convulsed by world war and turn them to peaceful pursuits—trading goods, making money, each nation knowing the other in a context of constructiveness. It succeeded! But in the past 30 years it expanded, took on more power and authority, made more demands, fell too in love with its ability to apply limits. Even during the Brexit debate the EU’s conversation was not of devolving power to member states but taking more to Brussels. As Boris Johnson noted in March, when he seemed to remember such things, the result, in Britain, was public alienation, which contributed to a sense of “disengagement,” which has contributed to “the rise of extremist parties.”
That was an accurate diagnosis. I add only that the EU inculcated in its officials and apparatchiks an outrageous and insular snobbery that left them incapable of seeing critics as anything but ignorant, racist knuckle-draggers. They noticed, didn’t like it, and rebelled when they could.
Here’s to rebellion. Happy 4th.
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