Y66 put up a guest post from Tony Blair in the Brexit thread. I couldn't figure out how to link to that from here, so I decided to just copy it and comment.
Added: It, in fact the full article, is now linked below. I think that it is good to have it on this thread. It has applications for the US, and I did not want to put a lot of US oriented comments into the Brexit thread.
Quote
The political center has lost its power to persuade and its essential means of connection to the people it seeks to represent. Instead, we are seeing a convergence of the far left and far right. The right attacks immigrants while the left rails at bankers, but the spirit of insurgency, the venting of anger at those in power and the addiction to simple, demagogic answers to complex problems are the same for both extremes. Underlying it all is a shared hostility to globalization.
Britain and Europe now face a protracted period of economic and political uncertainty, as the British government tries to negotiate a future outside the single market where half of Britain's goods and services are traded. These new arrangements — to be clear about the scale of the challenge — must be negotiated with all the other 27 countries, their individual parliaments and the European Parliament. Some governments may be cooperative; others won't want to make leaving easy for Britain, in order to discourage similar movements.
Britain is a strong country, with a resilient people and energy and creativity in abundance. I don't doubt Britons' capacity to come through, whatever the cost. But the stress on the United Kingdom is already apparent.
Voters in Scotland chose by a large margin to remain in Europe, with the result that there are renewed calls for another referendum on Scottish independence. Northern Ireland has benefited from virtually open borders with the Republic of Ireland. That freedom is at risk because the North's border with the South now becomes the European Union's border, a potential threat to the Northern Ireland peace process.
If the people — usually a repository of common sense and practicality — do something that appears neither sensible nor practical, then it forces a period of long and hard reflection. My own politics is waking to this new political landscape. The same dangerous impulses are visible, too, in American politics, but the challenges of globalization cannot be met by isolationism or shutting borders.
The center must regain its political traction, rediscover its capacity to analyze the problems we all face and find solutions that rise above the populist anger. If we do not succeed in beating back the far left and far right before they take the nations of Europe on this reckless experiment, it will end the way such rash action always does in history: at best, in disillusion; at worst, in rancorous division. The center must hold.
Just as a side item, the first majr political figure that I can recall emphasizing the importance of the center was Richard Nixon back in 1968 or so.
But regardless of the source, I see the idea as sound.
I copy the Blair sheet here because I think it has very broad importance.
Of particular interest to me is
"If the people — usually a repository of common sense and practicality — do something that appears neither sensible nor practical, then it forces a period of long and hard reflection."
Yes Yes and more Yes. Here is my argument:
If people are really too stupid for self-government then we are doomed. It follows that we had then better hope that this is not so. What follows from that? I think the leadership might give at least some thought to the possibility that some of the fault lies with themselves. Not just their opponent du jour, themselves. If people are pissed off, there is usually a reason for it. True, some people are always in a state of turmoil. But most of us like stability. When large numbers of people who presumably like stability move in directions that will greatly destabilize things, there is a reason. I hope our political leaders can think more deeply about causes, something beyond writing it all off as the people being too stupid to understand the brilliant slogans someone wrote for them.
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