TROUBLES IN TWO DEMOCRACIES
The resignation of the British ambassador to Washington on Wednesday was about something much bigger than President Donald Trump’s anger at leaked diplomatic cables that dissed him.
After all, the highly respected Kim Darroch was merely doing his job by reporting in 2017 about an “inept” Trump and a “uniquely dysfunctional” White House. Most ambassadors in D.C. were no doubt reporting the same. Moreover, Trump’s Twitter slams of foreign allies, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, underline the hypocrisy of his wrath.
The real reason Darroch stepped down is more disturbing than Trump’s tantrums: Boris Johnson, a Trump clone likely to replace May as prime minister later this month, refused to support the ambassador.
The likely ascendancy of Johnson reflects the astonishing British political parallel to America’s current political dysfunction. Praised by Trump, Johnson is widely derided in Britain as a congenital liar and unrepentant womanizer whose only ideology is self-advancement. His record in previous government posts ranges from mediocre (as London mayor) to outright failure.
Yet Johnson is poised to become Britain’s next political leader. His rise reflects the similar fraying of two great democracies on either side of the pond.
The parallels between Johnson and Trump (even apart from their poofy blond coiffures) are astounding, despite the difference between a presidential and a parliamentary system.
First is the similarity of their base. The mercurial, often reckless Johnson is almost certain to be chosen as new leader this month by around 160,000 members of the British Conservative Party, in the wake of May’s resignation as party leader. The members skew older, white, male, and ultraconservative.
The second similarity is Johnson’s disrespect for facts. (It’s not uncommon to see articles in the British press with titles like “The Most Infamous Lies of Boris Johnson.”)
Johnson’s star rose in 2016 when he promoted gross falsehoods to garner support for the referendum on whether Britain should Brexit the European Union. He notoriously claimed that hordes of Muslim immigrants were coming (Britain took none of the 2015-16 Syrian refugee wave) and that Britain would get vast sums from the European Union for its health service if it left the Union (totally untrue).
Now Johnson is promising Brexit miracles to his base, insisting he can take Britain out of the European Union with no deal and no economic disaster. He promises that a great bilateral trade deal with Trump will take care of any problems. All magical thinking, but the faithful want to believe.
Another astonishing parallel with Trump is Johnson’s checkered personal life, featuring two divorces, scandalous affairs, a child born out of wedlock, and public bragging about his prowess. And, yes, “family values” conservatives give him a pass.
One has to ask how two great democracies have reached the point where they will both soon be led by politicians who lack basic decency, morals, and respect for truth. Johnson cultivates a bumbling image as a jokester, and promises to make Britain great again. And he faces an opposition Labour Party that seems determined to defeat itself.
Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to reach out beyond his far left base or take the pro-Europe stand most Labour voters want. Nor has he tamped down anti-Semitism in Labour’s top ranks.
Labour is failing to grasp the opportunity to stand against a leader that will most likely be revealed, sooner or later, as a charlatan. Johnson will make Britain dependent on Trump’s promises, which are no more reliable than his own.