Rebecca Walser: British election results – What Boris Johnson, Brexit teach Democrats (and Trump)
What began with the people’s Brexit referendum in June 2016 that turned into a three-and-a-half-year quagmire has finally ended the right way – at the ballot box with the people’s choice.
Excitement, relief and finally finality… instant thoughts as my phone blows up with alerts on the news that not only has Boris Johnson and his Conservative party won the election, but they have finally won enough of a majority to affirmatively extricate the U.K. from the European Union.
What began with the people’s Brexit referendum in June 2016 that turned into a three-and-a-half-year quagmire of uncertainty, political wrangling, votes of no confidence, and multiple new elections has finally ended the right way – at the ballot box with the people’s choice.
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Simple yet mighty, Johnson’s slogan of “Get Brexit Done” is eerily reminiscent of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” with uncannily similar historic results.
Blue states that Trump turned red – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (and 1 electoral vote in Maine) and blue-collar workers long assumed to be a reliable Democrat voting block both resonated with Trump’s message of putting American jobs first, putting America’s economic and national security interests first, getting America’s fiscal house in order before we further indebt ourselves through expansive global nation-building and funding, and taking care of our own, our veterans and our poor, before we extend economic respite for the infinite financial needs of the rest of the world.
The UK’s election Thursday was no less historic with Labour suffering their worse defeat in over 80 years since 1935. The voters were clear – they put the United Kingdom before the European Union, the UK’s sovereignty before accepting direction from Brussels, and the people of the U.K. before the needs of a mass influx of immigrants from poorer Eastern Europe.
Likewise, blue-collar workers who were loyal to the Labour Party for decades switched their affiliation in this election. Their votes moved districts to elect a never-before-elected Conservative Party MP (Member of Parliament).
These real voter migrations in both the U.S. and the U.K. are clear reflections of those who feel left behind as highly educated elites, who smugly come across as knowing better than everyone else, move further and further towards the Marxist, socialist policies of collectivism.
These elites put collectivism before individualism, globalization before sovereignty, public ownership of resources over private, the viewing of wealth creation and retention as evil (“There should be no billionaires” says Senator Bernie Sanders). Yes, even handing out a trophy to everybody just for playing because actually keeping score is apparently too much pressure for our kids to take these days…
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With the U.K. now on track to become EU free, the U.S. has an excellent direct bilateral trade opportunity to leverage for our own self-interests and we will. And while these words come across as stark and mean-spirited, we should pause to realize that there is a natural, innate and human pushback to this worldwide shift towards global collectivism.
The voters were clear – they put the United Kingdom before the European Union, the UK’s sovereignty before accepting direction from Brussels, and the people of the U.K. before the needs of a mass influx of immigrants from poorer Eastern Europe.
Why do people put themselves and their families first? If a mom in Estonia could make it west and provide a better life for her children, wouldn’t she go? (Of course -- she should!) But doesn’t that mean there are fewer opportunities for those already there since economic opportunity is not boundless anywhere?
If a U.S. family lost their job due to the outsourcing of jobs to China, wouldn’t they take reactive steps to correct their loss as much as possible (of course!) So, while the Chinese goods are cheaper, there is a real cost and it wasn’t free.
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And so, we act in our own self-interests because resources are scarce, and we innately know that there simply isn’t enough to go around for everyone on planet Earth. Thus, we are automatically motivated to do what is in our families’ best interests’, even to the exclusion of others when necessary.
This is simply the economic rationalization of limited resources among unlimited infinite needs – an invisible force that moves us all towards self-preservation.
Although it makes for great talking points to offer “free” everything to everyone -- like free trade attached to the free movement of people in the EU, it really wasn’t free at all. The British people decided they didn’t want to pay the costs anymore.
America is quite behind the EU on the lurch towards socialism, collectivism, Marxism but many want to march us there in a hurry under the same headline of free stuff for all…
Perhaps we should look at our British cousin for the lessons they have so painfully learned.
Rebecca Walser is a licensed tax attorney, a certified financial planner and the author of "Wealth Unbroken," who specializes in the strategic planning of maximizing lifetime wealth while minimizing tax through her practice, Walser Wealth Management. She earned her juris doctor degree from the University of Florida and her masters of law degree in taxation from New York University.