In 2016, a majority of Brits voted to leave the European Union (EU). Just like America’s political class, members of Parliament – of all political stripes – did not listen; thinking we know what’s best for the nation. That thinking trap was exposed by voters on Toolshed Thursday, when Labour and Liberal candidates re-heard the Brexit message: the electorate gave Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party complete control over the UK for the next five years. There are lessons here for America’s political establishment, especially Democrats.
Ignore your blue-collar base and pay the consequences. Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 because the Blue Firewall voted against her party’s worldview, and Jeremy Corbyn lost in 2019 because the Red Firewall voted against his party’s worldview. Working-class voters in America’s post-industrial Midwest and Britain’s post-industrial Midlands have a simple demand: (1) protect unskilled and semiskilled workers from the global economy, and (2) invest in healthcare, education, law enforcement, and infrastructure within our borders and for our citizens.
The 2016 Democrat message and 2019 Labour message offered few words of support for working people, focusing too much on “woke” identity politics. This is the Great Disconnect between Democrat/Labour leftists and their former constituents. Liberal voters in London can vote for national self-awareness issues like LGBTQ rights, but blue-collar voters in the Midlands must vote for self-survival issues like safe neighborhoods and gainful wages. Charity begins at home, right?
Voters in civilized societies are circling the wagons around old-school national interests. Without Thatcher and Reagan, multilateralism and multiculturalism created a type of anarcho-globalism. To wit, the WTO’s idea of “free trade” allowed China to steal manufacturing jobs in the West, and the UN’s pro-Palestine policies spurred a rise in global anti-Semitism. Go to Idaho or Hereford, where the average voter isn’t buying the benevolence of China or Palestine.
Liberals ignored self-survival issues; such as exorbitant gas taxes in France and higher Obamacare premiums in the US. Such a blind eye invited working-class mistrust, because average Americans and Brits believe it is patriotic – not deplorable – to protect domestic workers from foreign imports and cheap immigrant labor. Boris Johnson talked up the British worker.
Average Americans and Brits also want to preserve the Anglo-American cultural constructs that form their national identities. Attacks upon those constructs are perceived as attacks upon the voter’s character. Working-class patriotism is simple: if you weren’t born here, then assimilate here. These voters are mostly tolerant, but they resent politicians who belittle the traditions of their church, family or region. Boris Johnson tapped into British pride – and won big!
Move too far left and working-class voters won’t follow. Boris Johnson campaigned as a “One Nation” conservative with a focus on Brexit, the economy, crime and national security. Jeremy Corbyn campaigned on high-tax socialism, “woke” identity politics, and anti-Americanism with a focus on re-shaping the British economy. The British electorate rewarded Johnson with an 80-seat Conservative majority – and invited Corbyn to leave politics altogether.
The Conservative landslide should alarm the DNC. Entitlements that go too far (extended to non-citizens) or cost too much (the Green New Deal) scare off working-class voters. Discuss Chick-fil-A or charter schools as more than a tasty lunch or a good education, and working-class voters just might think Democrats favor a narrow-interest group over people like me. The lesson of Brexit is clear: choose Elizabeth Warren and prepare to lose big.