Day: June 16, 2019

Real Democracy, not the fake kind

benfell

There is a new blog post entitled, “The species we must become: On direct democracy, or why its alleged bugs are features.”

Brexit

It seems that some Tories are waking up to the realization that a leadership change changes nothing about Brexit. (As if there was ever any shortage of people who have said this all along.) The trouble here is that even this realization is simply being subsumed to the power struggle,[1] which is what Brexit had become.[2]

But it’s worse than that because even though a majority in Parliament opposes it, no-deal is still the default.[3] The hard Brexiteers can get their way simply by waiting it all out through October. That is, if the government isn’t forced to call a general election, likely to be “disastrous” for the Tories[4] and that threatens to put Nigel Farage[5] in at 10 Downing Street.[6]

Real democracy may suck (it threatens rather than empowers the rich, which is why James Madison specifically opposed it.[7]) but it sure the hell beats this. Y’all really ought to try it some time.

Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election

  1. [1]Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Brexit hits the fan,” Irregular Bullshit, January 18, 2019, https://disunitedstates.com/2019/01/18/brexit-hits-the-fan/↩
  3. [3]Jack Maidment, “Theresa May’s deal defeated again by 58 votes – PM hints at general election to break deadlock,” Telegraph, March 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/29/brexit-latest-news-theresa-may-final-push-mps-prepare-vote-withdrawal/↩
  4. [4]Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election↩
  5. [5]Sam Knight, “The Alarming Return of Nigel Farage,” New Yorker, May 21, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-alarming-return-of-nigel-farage↩
  6. [6]British Broadcasting Corporation, “European elections 2019: Brexit Party dominates as Tories and Labour suffer,” May 27, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228↩
  7. [7]James Madison, “Federalist No. 10,” in The Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills (1982; repr., New York: Bantam, 2003), 50-58.↩