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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums21 British Conservatives put country over party. Why can't 21 Republicans do the same?
21 British Conservatives put country over party. Why cant 21 Republicans do the same?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/04/british-conservatives-put-country-over-party-why-cant-republicans-do-same/?arc404=true
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Not only that, but they also would be prevented from standing as parliamentary candidates at the next election. They would be out of politics. Finished. Yet all of them, all 21 of them, did it anyway. Why?
Firstly, they did it because of course its an idiotic idea for Britain to sever, from one day to the next, all of its relationships with all of its closest and most important neighbors: not just trade but also security arrangements, scientific agreements, legal pacts, diplomatic deals, everything. During the Brexit referendum campaign, nobody ever said this kind of total break was a possibility, nobody voted for it and only a minority of the public say they support it now. The 21 Tory rebels know that the diplomatic and economic consequences of a break like this, without transitional treaties and negotiated arrangements, will last for decades. Just about everybody else knows this, too, including the prime minister, Boris Johnson. But only 21 members of the party were willing to act
Secondly, they did it because a few days earlier, Johnson had announced a suspension of Parliament that will begin next week. This unprecedented abuse of power was accompanied by a series of open lies, bullying language and threats of a kind that Conservative governments dont, historically, use toward their members. The 21 Tory rebels arent just standing against an ugly legal and economic mess; they also are standing up in favor of constitutional, behavioral and legal norms that they see being broken. They are standing up for a set of parliamentary traditions and customs that they fear will be destroyed forever
Thirdly, they did it because they know everybody knows that members of the current Tory leadership have chosen this destructive path not for the sake of the country, not for the well-being of the British, not for the future of their children, but because they are afraid that, having promised Brexit and failed to deliver, they will lose the next election. They are putting party over country. By contrast, the 21 Tory rebels have decided to put country over party, indeed country over career, in defiance of their leaders
These 21 rebels, in other words, stood up against a national leader from their own party in order to prevent him from harming the country, undermining the constitution and damaging democracy. Imagine how different American politics would be if we could find 21 Republican senators to do the same
NRaleighLiberal
(60,018 posts)spanone
(135,859 posts)TheRealNorth
(9,498 posts)Economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit is not good for the investment class (unless you have connections to insider information- then economic uncertainty is a boon).
Hotler
(11,443 posts)They never change.
grumpyduck
(6,246 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)JHB
(37,161 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)if the other party would welcome them
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)All honor to them, but the Party is still a bunch of...
They can still stand for Parliament, just not as Tories. They could join another party, or even run as an Independent. Financing might be a problem, but they might also get a boost in their consistuencies for their show of character.
-- Mal
lark
(23,147 posts)These are profiteering Russian Repugs who only care for themselves, power and $$$. They are fine with stealing everything from the poor and middle class because they are diverting it to their own and their donors pockets for power and fun.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Yes having the whip withdrawn means they cannot stand as a Conservative in an upcoming election. It doesn't mean that they can't stand for re-election under another party or even as an independent. $500 and signatures from 10 voters in the constituency nominating a person gets them on the ballot paper.
Some of the rebels are popular enough to be able to stand as an independent and win (e.g. Ken Clarke). Others can win by being tactical. If my MP Anne Milton switched to the Lib Dems she would have a shot of winning as the constituency is heavily Remain and her personal ideology isn't that far off the general Liberal Democrat manifesto.
PSPS
(13,613 posts)In the US, 98% of those who win an election are the ones who spend the most on TV advertising. Where does the money come from? Russia and others funnel billions through dark money channels and through its surrogates like the NRA to the GOP. Advertising for the 2020 election began in 2017.
In the UK, broadcast political advertising is largely prohibited. Political spending by outside organizations is prohibited. However, russia worked around this using social media like zuckerberg's facebook, which brought the brexit fiasco.
CrispyQ
(36,500 posts)Here's a DU thread on the Slate article, https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212432960 but this is what really stood out to me, cuz this is exactly what the GOP & republicans believe.
Levitz was responding to the presidents expressions of contempt for Puerto Rico, as another hurricane closed in on the island, and to a Trump-Pence fundraising email declaring, of the Democrats, this is our country, not theirs.
There is an undercurrent of "Only we are true Americans" throughout the entire republican party.