It is interesting that Johnson adopted the ridiculously long tie fashion of Trump when visiting the US
Two other minor points. The Conservative Party is rather cool towards Johnson. They have a very strong affiliation with the Establishment and really do not like “common” people. This aspirational middle class may not want to align with the unwashed proletariat. Johnson’s advisor Cummings likes to portray himself as a Rasputin type figure. In fact he is a trivial, simplistic ranter who has never been elected to any office. His time is rapidly running out.
"lack of plan B"? Don't make me laugh, neither of these two even have a plan A!
Both men have crossed the Rubicon.
Rather than bow to decency, expect them to double down despicably.
Western democracy has not faced such a challenge since the rise of fascism.
But this time its home grown.
1
America is a democracy, sir. Not one of two "... great Anglo-Saxon democracies...".
A democracy
It is very much wrong-headed to think of it that way. That's been part of a problem we have. Maybe think about it.
3
Please, NYT, don't refer to the US as an "Anglo-Saxon democracy." "Anglo-Saxon" literally means descended from the Germanic invaders of Britain in late classical/early medieval Europe, and the term has in modern history become a very racially charged shorthand for "white, English-speaking." This is not just political correctness. 1) "Anglo-Saxon" is not even close to an accurate descriptor of the US today for the very diverse nation we are now, so we are NOT an Anglo-Saxon democracy. 2) We were not an "Anglo-Saxon" nation in 1776: French, Irish, Scottish, African, Native American -- all were elements of our national identity then, and these parts of our early American heritage don't fall under the identify of "Anglo-Saxon" even if neutrally construed. And 3) even Great Britain wasn't "Anglo-Saxon" in 1776, given the large number of Welsh, Scots, and Irish Gaels involved, along with English in creating early modern *British* culture. So, the US isn't an "Anglo-Saxon democracy" and calling it one is really indefensible, and (historically) has been one way to imply that only whites are "real" Americans.
9
It cannot be repeated too often that the Supreme Court made very clear that its judgement had nothing to do with Brexit. It was entirely focused on whether or not the government (meaning our unelected Prime Minister) mislead the Queen and Parliament about the reasons for prorogation. Johnson lied. No ifs or buts. He then proceeded to address parliament the following day in terms that suggested he knew better than eleven Law Lords and that their judgement had been entirely political. Johnson is a proven liar, over many years.
12
Correction ;
The appropriate designation for the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump is NeoPopulist ... not Populist .
The difference ? Genuine populists care for their constituents and the common man fighting for THEM on each and every front .
Whereas NeoPopulists only pretend to be populist when in reality the ONLY thing they care about or fight for ... is themselves and their chosen greed addled cronies / sycophants they surround themselves with
The sad reality ? The general populace more often than not deluded by a cult of celebrity and addled by manufactured fears fall for the NeoPopulist hook , line and sinker even as the NeoPopulist steals the food from their children's mouths while destroying the very lives they voted for the NeoPopulist to defend .
Thereby escalating a growing collective stupidity amongst themselves that no manner of truth .. fact ... or even the evidence of their precious lives falling apart before their very eyes can overcome when it comes to them prostrating themselves before the ' throne ' of their chosen demi-god / neopopulist savior
Thus has it ever been . And thus will it most likely ever be .
8
Populism is not as the NYT loves to sum it up:"populist crusades — the people versus the elite."
Populists are not anti-elite; they are anti-big.
Populists are best defined by favoring the common good and the people over big, whether big is railroads or today's big finance.
2
Alastair Campbell, the British journalist and political aide dismissed Johnson as a “Pound shop Trump”, (The American equivalent of the Pound shop is the dollar store).
3
You left out both campaigned on racism and neither ever was elected by a majority of the public.
However at least the British conservatives aren't gun nuts trying to take away healthcare and claim climate change is fake. That brand of lunacy is limited to the deranged cabal known as the Republican Party.
4
They both lack principles and are narcissistic to the extreme. Everything is for and about them. Country and Party be damned.
6
They’re attracted to each other because both share basic traits that they perceive in the other.
Each is infantile. Narcissistic. Impulsive. Obsessive-compulsive. Uninquisitive. Greedy — motivated by personal aggrandizement. They dominate and hurt others often simply because they can, why their interpersonal destructiveness seems so arbitrary and capricious, as it usually is. It serves no other discernible purpose. Most people in their immediate orbit are only aides of passing value because they only value themselves.
24
One thing Trump and Johnston have in common is disdain for legislative bodies ... Congress and Parliament. Each would prefer to govern by fiat as each is wholly convinced of his own rightness and righteousness.
20
George W's administration "outs" an active CIA agent, in an act of political revenge. Trump wants to investigate a CIA officer who blew the whistle on him for treason. Hypocrisy aside, what is it about Republicans that engenders such vindictiveness?
They have not stooped to outright assassinations, á la Russia, Chechnya, and Saudi Arabia, but the urge is the same. Cross us, and we'll make you pay.
20
Stop with the “populism”! A populism supported by ignorance, anger, and superstition, is the populism of the minority and doesn’t deserve a title.
7
Populists are capable of being defeated, but only under one condition: a unified opposition.
8
It's like Dr. Evil and Mini Me. Reality really is stranger than fiction....
8
Trump is a rockstar and Johnson plays air guitar.
@Cletus Butzin
a Rock Star, as in one those empty cans of energy drink you see tossed in the trash.
Sorry, bro'. That stink don't sell here.
3
They're both liars and they're both acting. At least Mr Johnson has read a book or two.
20
@LS Much good that expensive education has done Johnson. Most ignorant well-educated man on the public stage, perhaps in history.
3
Trump is ignorant, inarticulate, incoherent but doesn't know it, Boris is articulate, amusing and well-read, and he knows it. Both are lazy. But Boris is seductive while Trump is predatory.
Most of all, both are dangerous demagogues.
41
The most cogent explanation for all their political posturing is the rational choice theory's electoral incentive which isn't always fulfilled.
1
Meanwhile, we spiral toward extinction.
We have triggered processes of climate change and shattering of biodiversity that will continue until conditions for human life on Earth are gone. Our civilization and all or most of our species are gone.
These processes that we have begun will continue until we are gone because they are driven by positive-feedback momentum.
As we spiral past the point of no return, these clownish mobsters, Trump and Boris and such, distract our attention.
Our "more responsible" figures of prominence and influence, in politics and media, help the clownish mobsters distract our attention, and offer distractions of their own: As we spiral, let's engage in arguments about everything else, such as Medicare for All when All will soon be gone.
For our generations ahead, the suffering will be worse than anyone can imagine. Billions dying of starvation as farmlands fail and our population shrinks toward nothing. Others shot in social turmoil or as they migrate in hopes of sustaining life.
But back to the headlines of the day.
21
@Dick Purcell
You do realize that it's possible — necessary even — to care about (and pay attention to) more than one thing at the same time, right?
10
@Dick Purcell-
It’s a catastrophe; nothing less.
Nothing more and nothing less ... . “Less” as in “We’re about to be cast out of the Garden of Eden with no place to go” ..., “less“, although some still seriously propose that humans colonize Mars, another Garden of Eden in their minds. Just pull up stakes and move 35-million miles to a barren, radiation-swept wasteland where no infrastructure supporting life exists, a world without warmth, any oceans or even flowing water or breathable air! No wonder we’re in the fix we’re in.
Definitely civilization-ending, what’s coming. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon chortles about his next space toy and billionaire Bill boasts about his mega-foundation improving life expectancy in the Third World. Civilization-ending and maybe species-ending, for us, if the most powerful among us are so deluded, so self-deluded and so self-absorbed.
No will to fight it in a general population now so thoroughly misled by mass media that it can’t see woods for trees. Why? Because that media prefers to focus its loving gaze on charlatans and clowns like Don and Boris. It prefers to showcase The Don and Boris Show while the world burns, while Earth’s biosphere disintegrates.
No backbone among other political leaders who otherwise understand more about the environmental menace than most, their failure added to the colossal failure that Don and Boris are as national leaders. Just failure, failure all around. Failure. Cowardice. Venality. Impotence. Stupidity.
4
@Nick
Indeed it is possible to do more than one thing at the same time. But as more and more balls need to be juggled, some will be dropped.
3
Boris Johnson has recklessly adopted Donald Trump’s deluded bulldozer mantra of ‘never apologize’ and ‘never admit mistakes’ even when things are falling apart. It may appeal to a far-right fraction of the electorate, but how about sparing a thought for the country he’s taking over a cliff?
34
Both seem to lie with ease.
39
@jay At ease ? Methinks especially in the case of the Donald he is a pathological liar unable to control his thoughts and no longer able to discern between lies and truth believing only that which emits from his head
As for Boris ? More likely he is a well practiced Volitional liar ... but it would not surprise me in the slightest if in reality he is a pathological liar as well
2
I wish the press at all levels would stop referring to these two as "leaders." They are heads of state, and perhaps leaders of their political parties, but they are not leaders in the traditional and commonly understood definition. To call them such only inflates their egos, which are already grandiose enough.
38
Actually Boris Johnson is not a head of state but head of the government, the head of state for the UK is Queen Elizabeth II.
8
@Susan
I also wish the press would stop using the term "populist." These are right-wing demagogues whose talk is belied by their actions, which always favor business interests and the wealthy.
2
Johnson is a dangerous demagogue. His rants and use of inflammatory language are cynical and well-planned. His svengali, Dominic Cummings, says they are even "enjoying themselves."
Trump is a demagogue but seems a bit more disorganised and scattershot about it. He also doesn't seem pleased.
That is the difference between them. Eton, Oxford, Wharton Business School, these are all irrelevant. Johnson loves to quote "classics" because it is a way to show off. I'm not sure he knows the meaning of love in any context.
12
@Joan ; A very consequential and major correction;
Boris Johnson nine times out of ten MISQUOTES ... the classics ... either intentionally to suit his own needs ... or more likely because he does not have a grasp on the ' classics ' he constantly and consistently misuses and misquotes
e.g. Don't give this devil ( Boris ) more credit than he is likely due . Regardless of the degrees in hand he is what G.K Chesterton called an Intellectual Idiot ...e.g. .. someone who sounds like they absolutely know what they're talking about when in reality they haven't got a clue
8