Dem
47
GOP
53
Tip O'Neill's famous remark that "all politics is local" is certainly not true anymore. In fact, it is closer to "all politics is global." The U.S. has a populist wannabe strongman, but so do Hungary, Turkey, Slovakia and other countries. Future club members could be the U.K., France, and Germany. Politico's Jonathan Martin has taken a closer look at the U.K., in particular.
The political tides in the U.S. and the U.K. have often run in parallel. Ronald "Call me Ronnie" Reagan and Maggie Thatcher were best buddies. So were Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Brexit presaged Donald Trump's first win by only 5 months. Maybe there is something in the water, even though there is a lot of it in the British Isles.
Martin went to the sparsely attended Conservative Party conference last week in Manchester. He wrote that it could have been the CPAC conference, if Trump didn't exist. There was nostalgia for Thatcher and disbelief at a recent poll showing the Tories in fourth place in a hypothetical election. If they were in the U.S., these pathetic souls would be never-Trump Republicans.
The main difference with the U.S. is that the populist far right in the U.K., now led by Nigel Farage, didn't attempt to take over the Conservative Party. Instead, they formed their own party, now called "Reform UK." Its slogan is: "Britain is broken. Britain needs reform." Recent polling now has it in first place, ahead of Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
The Tories don't know what to do (like the never-Trump Republicans). Despite being almost entirely white, they elected a Black woman, Kemi Badenoch, as their leader in an attempt to attract new voters and stop Reform UK. Similarly, some never-Trumpers are hoping Nikki Haley will be their savior, but it probably won't work any better in the U.S. than in the U.K. If current trends play out, by 2030, the U.K., France, and Germany could all have their local Trumpists in power. While the U.S. won't have the original as president then, it could have an imitator living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Needless to say, we could be in for tough times globally. (V)