Brexit Entering its Danger Zone of Failure

The Brexit cause is now entering its most dangerous phase, when the idea is lost and the lashing out begins. Johnson, Rees-Mogg and others are stepping into the failed zone that bedevils politicians who peddle bad policy and don’t get what they want. They reach back into a false history to whip up even more divisive sentiment. Johnson’s terminology about colonization, white flags, surrendering and taking the fight to the enemy is perilous, particularly when he also sprinkles Latin into his arguments to try to show a superiority of intellect far removed from that of the average voter. Johnson and his allies still have a large following and we must be beware. There is nothing wrong at all in rethinking regional trade and visa arrangements. In Asia and Latin America, governments do it all the time. They sensibly give citizens of neighboring countries preferential visa arrangements to those from far-away places. It is easier for an Argentinian to work in Chile than a German, or a Malay to go Indonesia than a Norwegian. In the same way, trade between neighbors is more trouble-free, largely because of lower transport costs. Rules governing Latin America’s Mercosur and Southeast Asia’s ASEAN are being refined all the time with minimal fuss. Members do not use schoolboy talk about white flags and surrender, and they have enough first-hand experience to know the difference between colonization and the relinquishing of a small measure of sovereignty to achieve shared values in governance and trade. The EU is not a colonizer. Nor does it resemble the Third Reich or the Supreme Soviet. Donald Tusk is not a Mussolini. There is nothing to surrender or colonize, and Britain is not threatened by its EU neighbors. A referendum does not represent democracy, any more than a series of elections in Afghanistan and Iraq have delivered democracy to those countries. The ballot box is just one of the many mechanisms that helps build democratic institutions. Mature political leaders know all this and they need to shout it from the rooftops to dampen the increasingly desperate voices of those intent on fueling divisions within Britain.