Democracy can’t be dismissed
Those who lose elections must accept the results
WHAT we have seen over the past three years in the UK and US is the establishment’s revolt against democracy. The bornto-rule elite, the swamp or whatever you want to call them, has worked tirelessly to subvert democracy and deny the will of the people.
Their desperate efforts to cling to power have been aided by large sections of the media and seen the propagation of hysteria, conspiracy theories and news reporting that has abandoned any semblance of impartiality.
Democracy only functions with the consent of those who lose at an election. But what we are seeing now are “democracy deniers” who want to portray results that go against them as illegitimate, blaming everything from Russian collusion to a misleading ad on a bus.
Brexit, they say, was never meant to happen. Neither was President Donald Trump. Both results represent the rejection of the status quo and were in many ways a triumph for the forgotten people.
Britons were warned of cataclysmic consequences if they voted to leave the European Union. The bulk of politicians, business leaders, academics and media were vehemently against leaving. They still are and their efforts to ignore the will of the people are shameful. It’s been galling watching folk who have done everything possible to stop Brexit being implemented crying about “coups” and “democracy” when they as a group have worked against the wishes of the majority in the biggest democratic vote in British history.
Britons voted to leave the European Union. It wasn’t a vote that was conditional on a deal that is palatable to the EU. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to deliver where his Tory predecessors have failed and he has been willing to purge his party of Remainers who have undermined Brexit every step of the way.
In the end, Johnson may have to enter into an arrangement with Nigel Farage, whose Brexit Party won the recent EU elections only six weeks after being formed, to ensure that Brexit happens and on Britain’s terms. Farage, who was instrumental in bringing about the referendum and has arguably had more impact than any politician in the UK since Margaret Thatcher, has spoken of the “radicalisation” of some Remainers.
“For a civilised democracy to work you need the losers’ consent; politicians not accepting the referendum result have led us to this,” he said. He has praised Johnson for his decisive action in dumping the recalicatrant MPs.
“These self-serving men and women – many of them not proper Conservatives anyway – all received fair warning that their arrogance and disloyalty would have consequences. When you commit an act of political sabotage, you earn your punishment,” Farage wrote.
A poll released earlier this week by ComRes shows that only one in four Brits are against Brexit being implemented, with 52 per cent in favour and 21 per cent who didn’t know. Other polls show that the majority want a snap general election if Brexit is not resolved by the new October 31 deadline – an election the Remainers oppose because they know they will lose.
There are many parallels between Remainers in Britain and the Resistance in the US which refuses to accept that Trump is their rightfully elected president.
Like Brexit, Trump was seen as outsider with no hope of winning. The Trump campaign was outspent dramatically by Hillary Clinton and subjected to the most brutal media treatment of any mainstream politician. A poll three days before the election declared that Clinton had a “99 per cent chance of winning”. And, like Brexit, a Trump victory was meant to lead to economic doom and gloom and widespread unrest.
Trump, Brexit and the Morrison government’s 2019 election triumph are humiliating, not only for pollsters but also political pundits and analysts. They also show that the electorate will not be swayed by scaremongering, sneers and slurs.
2016 will go down as one of the most significant years in modern politics and it’s clear that the losers still cannot comprehend why they lost, let alone accept the result. Instead they try to declare the result invalid. They have heaped abuse on Brexit and Trump voters, smearing them as angry, racist and/or unthinking simpletons tricked into voting a certain way.
We saw a similar reaction in Australia with ABC favourite Jane Caro decrying the election result as symptomatic of what happens when backwardlooking people are allowed to vote. She wrote of sticking “two rude fingers up at all the truculent turds who voted to turn backwards”.
Radio and TV presenter Meshel Laurie labelled Australians as “dumb, mean-spirited and greedy” for voting for the Coalition. TV presenter Dr Nikki Stamp bizarrely wrote of the election result: “I’m scared. I’m scared for women, refugees, the disadvantaged, our indigenous people and anyone who wants a better Australia.”
Elections have consequences. For a democracy to function effectively, losers must accept the result of democratic elections. We have seen in the UK and US how divisive and damaging it is when losers engage in a sustained campaign of hysteria rather than respect the will of the people.