[David Anthony]

What do Americans think about Brexit?

[Max Goodman]

One American sees it as a foolish and potentially harmful accident. A slim majority, having been told they could have the benefits of E.U. membership without the responsibilities, approved the idea of leaving the E.U. without, even among those in favor of leaving, an agreed-on idea of what the future relationship should look like.

[Michael Cantor]

I think it's a bloody disaster. Welcome to the club.

[Jan Iwaszkiewicz]

Hello David

This is not quite an aside but have you read Boris's book on Churchill it is quite illuminating.

Jan

[Orwn Acra]

They like it because it makes them look less stupid.

[John Riley]

Clearly, the entire Western Hemisphere is not reacting well to rapid changes and a shrinking world. Americans voted for Trump so he could build a silly wall like it's 500 BCE, and Great Britain is trying to pull back to their side of the channel and stop the free movement of people. It's all reactionary and more than a little pathetic and very frightening. What's going to happen when these sad attempts to go back in time don't work? What has usually happened is war.

[Jim Moonan]

x
The contagion is spreading.
Ironically, it may turn out to be self-quarantining. Even as the world convulses, a purge is underway (however subtly). It's called reality. It's method: entropy, evolution of thought, and advancement of technology to bring the people's voices together.. (All of which involve some convolution, I suppose. It will take time.) Here we are.
Me at my most flagrantly optimistic? We are in the "step-backward" phase of the "two-steps-forward-one step backward" dance towards the best of all possible worlds.

Another aside: I was in Scotland recently (Late August into September when things were heated in the British Parliament.) I watched a fair amount of the coverage. Trump is infinitely more detestable, infinitely more sinister as a human being than Johnson, IMO. At least Johnson articulates well enough and conforms to decorum so as not to create havoc with the populace, and not blatantly fan the flames of fear, bigotry, racism, misogyny, etc. Trump is a nightmare. (Granted, it is still rearing its draconian head in Britain as a result of the isolationist, reactionary contraction that is Boris Johnson, but still, Trump - the word "trump" should be expunged from the English language forever IMO. )

Boris may have pulled the wool over the eyes of the British electorate, but Trump pulled the carpet out from underneath the American electorate — Then he set the floor on fire, walled us in and locked shut the windows and doors.
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x

[David Anthony]

But leaving aside Trump.
The British people voted to leave by a slim majority in 2016.
They voted the same way in the last EU election but by a bigger majority.
Then they voted the same way in the 2019 general election.

[David Anthony]

So, last gasp of a failed empire, or first hope of a forward-thinking nation?

[R. Nemo Hill]

The former.

Nemo