The Patriot Post® · June 23rd: Britain's Independence Day
As you know, there is a great conflict that has the entire Western world in turmoil. On one side are powerful forces of big government, big business and big media. Unanimously, they are telling us that borders are old fashioned, that everyone in the world has a right to migrate to wherever they wish, that nation-states are antiques.
They behave as if major decisions should be entrusted to government bureaucrats who claim to know what is best for us. And in the minds of these elites, Western Civilization owes a debt to the rest of the world for its oppression.
On the other side is the common man and woman in every nation who feels the normal sense of pride people have always felt about the place of their birth. They believe they know better how to run their lives, not people in distant cities and nations whom they have never met.
They know that without borders there is no nation. They know the civilization they are part of has brought more liberty and prosperity to more people than any other in the history of mankind. They believe that their elected officials should represent them and defend their nation first, rather than some vague concept of globalism.
For months these two sides have clashed in a historic battle in Great Britain. And in spite of threats from George Soros and Barack Obama, the people once proudly led by Winston Churchill voted for liberty, not submission. [Thursday] the people of the United Kingdom voted to declare their independence from Brussels and to exit the European Union.
Political Reactions
Reacting to the vote, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who supported the campaign to remain in the E.U., announced he would resign in the weeks ahead. There have been calls for Labour leader Jeremy Corbin to step down as well.
Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, was once dismissed as a fringe, crackpot candidate. Sounding a populist theme, he told supporters [Friday] morning that “honesty, decency and belief in nation” had triumphed over the big banks, the multinational corporations and big government.
Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, who helped lead the Leave campaign and may become the next prime minister, said, “I believe we now have a glorious opportunity: we can pass our laws and set our taxes entirely according to the needs of the U.K. economy.” What a novel concept! Sadly, that is precisely what is at stake in the new world order.
Justice Secretary Michael Gove, also among those mentioned as a possible replacement for Cameron, declared the 23rd to be “D-Day” or “Democracy Day.” He compared the vote to the American Revolution, saying that Americans refused “to be ruled by someone who was distant and unaccountable. They decided to break free then and America has never looked back and the world had cause to be grateful.”
Gove urged Britons to have confidence in their institutions. He reminded them that voting to leave was an “embrace of optimism,” that England was not just some small rain soaked island, but a proud nation that “gave the world parliamentary democracy” and “moral leadership in the fight against slavery and the fight against fascism.”
A few years ago, I had the privilege of meeting with Secretary Gove in London. For over an hour, we discussed exactly this: Can the people find the courage to throw off the yoke of their politically correct masters and defend the values and culture of Western civilization?
I am greatly encouraged by this vote.
Market Reactions
Needless to say, the elites around the world are panicking today. Global financial markets are in free fall. For weeks, elites have threatened that this would happen. And because they are the ones who can make it happen, they are, of course, making it happen.
The “little people” are the only ones getting hurt. Not because they made bad investment decisions, but because they aren’t like George Soros who can move billions at whim.
While I’m not a financial advisor, this reaction is ridiculous in my view. For it to be rational you have to believe that the disappearance of nation-states is rational. You have to believe that the submersion of Europe by a tidal wave of refugees is good for the economic health of the West. Both are utterly absurd!
How did England and the world survive before the E.U.?
It reminds me of Margaret Thatcher, who vowed to remove government price controls if she were elected. When polls indicated she could win, the markets dropped. The elites then warned of chaos. But Thatcher coolly promised that the markets would be free to be markets again, growing and prospering unhindered by the yoke of government. And she was right.
This too shall pass.
Voters Reject Obama’s Bathroom Mandate
Much like Britons rejecting edicts from Brussels, new polling finds that voters in key swing states oppose Barack Obama’s mandate redefining the bathroom policies of local schools across the country.
You may recall that last month the Obama administration ordered every school to give boys who claim to be girls access to girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Outraged parents have responded in some cases by suing the schools for violating the privacy rights of their children.
In Florida, the margin was 54% against to 37% in favor.
In Ohio, it was 55% against to 36% in favor.
In Pennsylvania, it was 53% against to 39% in favor.
This is just one more example of our governing and cultural elites are so out-of-touch with the American people.