The
day after 52 percent of the people who voted that Britain should
leave the European Union, Google was deluged with questions. The
most common – what is the European Union? That suggests that
the people who voted to leave the European Union didn’t even
know what it was. They didn’t know that financial
institutions, headquartered in London, might shut down their offices
because they would lose the advantage they had by considering London
a European banking center. They didn’t know that thousands of
jobs now based in London might migrate to Paris or Brussels because
international banks wanted European centers of commerce, not simply
British centers. They didn’t expect that the value of the
pound would plummet. They didn’t know.
Instead,
they responded emotionally to those who encouraged them to vote to
leave the EU. They responded to the notion that immigration was
their enemy, and that people were “taking their jobs”.
They responded to an ugly divisiveness, and they voted to protect
themselves. They didn’t know that their protectionism might
leave them more vulnerable than ever. Now they know. The European
Union has asked the UK to speed up the inevitable separation, even as
more than 2 million Brits are, by petition, asking for a “do
over”, a second referendum. Few have patience for the
remorseful second-guessing after the unnecessary Brexit vote. Prime
Minister Cameron, after all, chose to sell a bunch of wolf tickets
when he called for the referendum. His egotism has had an ugly
outcome, and an unnecessary one. The vote need not have taken place.
Brexit
has implication in the United States. The callous excoriation of
immigrants made it possible for too many Brits to vote against their
own self-interest. Now, we see too many in the USA leaning toward
Donald Trump because he says he will make America great again. Great
for whom? Great how? In going back to the past is Mr. Trump harking
to the Leave it to Beaver 1950s days when independent women were
invisible, and people of color hardly showed up. I’d love
someone to remind me of any episode where Leave it to Beaver had a
black actor. Ha! When we go back to our nation’s “old
greatness”, we go back times when women and people of color
were, at best, invisible.
Thanks
to Brexit, the world will experience more financial instability than
it has experienced in the last decade or so. The stock market will
fluctuate, and then settle, and some folks will find their 401k
accounts dropping, and then recovering in a month or so. Interest
rates will fall, but that really only matters in the short run, and
with those who are managing stock markets. While it is impossible to
predict the outcomes of the Brexit vote, it is surely possible to
speak to the financial instability that is a byproduct of the Brexit
vote. The short-term implications don’t specifically affect
United States shareholders (although those invested in the UK will
see more immediate losses). In the longer run, the fracturing of the
EU collective has financial implications for all world stakeholders.
There
is a parallel between that which has happened in the UK and that
which has happened in the US. Voters in the UK were goaded into
voting “leave” even though too many knew that staying was
the better choice. In the US, we have a demagogue who is exhorting
people to “leave” our diversity reality by embracing his
cause and conveying his vote. The media has been an unindicted
co-conspirator on this Trump crusade, because he has garnered far
more visibility than he deserves. But his message resonates, even as
the “leave” message resonated in the UK.
People
aren’t asking the critical questions. Why has Trump refused to
release his tax returns? Why does he promise charitable
contributions that he does not honor? Why are the Trump products
manufactured in China, even as he decries outsourcing?
Will
we, in these United States, start Googling Trump after he is
nominated? Will we wait until it is too late to ask about the Trump
peccadilloes? Will asking late provide us with the same buyer’s
remorse that those in the UK are now experiencing? Will our protest
vote express our angst and also place an ill-equipped man into our
nation’s leadership? Will we ask the most important questions
when it is way too late?
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