What do Brexit and the papacy have in common? I'm so glad you asked.
Even when Catholicism was strong in Europe, there was always a power struggle between the papacy and Catholic monarchs. On the one hand, the papacy had its own foreign policy. The papacy is an institution with international ambitions. So the papacy championed domestic and foreign policies that enlarged the scope and power of the papacy. On the other hand, a French monarch championed domestic and foreign policies that benefited France, a Spanish monarch championed domestic and foreign policies that benefited Spain.
So there was always a divergence between national self-interest and papal self-interest. By the same token, it's my impression that people who voted for Brexit were fed up with a supranational bureaucracy imposing policies on England that were not in England's self-interest. Many English voters are naturally partial to domestic and foreign policies that benefit the English.
You've pretty much summed it up in a single paragraph, Steve. Now if only the swivel-eyed element (and it is an extremely large element) of the 'Remain' voters would allow themselves to think instead of tilting at straw dummies and poisoning the well then some rationality can be restored. The 'Brexit' campaign was always about political sovereignty and self-determination. Granted, many 'Brexit' voters had single-issue (or priority-issue) concerns, like immigration, but that neither makes them 'racist' nor does it belittle or diminish the overall message of the campaign itself.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be familiar on your side of the drink with the liberal-leftists' standard labelling of opponents as 'racist' and 'backward/uneducated' for having the temerity to hold opposing political views.
"it's my impression that people who voted for Brexit were fed up with a supranational bureaucracy imposing policies on England that were not in England's self-interest. Many English voters are naturally partial to domestic and foreign policies that benefit the English."
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem right there - English as opposed to British (i.e. including Scotland, Wales and Northern Irish)
What's 'the problem right there'?
DeleteIf it is Steve's use of 'England' and 'English' then that is a typical habit of Americans when describing Britain or the British. Get over it. No harm or offence is meant.
If your problem is with voting demographics then, unfortunately, that's irrelevant. Britain voted as a whole, and that certain areas within Great Britain were slightly or even overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU is utterly irrelevant.