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Friday, December 11, 2015

An Inconvenient Fact on the UK Ban of Trump

A lot of people are gleeful that this petition is the most popular one in the UK and has over half a million signatures

Donald Trump wins more support in US as petition to ban him from the UK passes half million signatures"

"British ambassador to Washington delivers withering rebuke to US Republican presidential candidate over claims that Britain is struggling with radicalised Muslims"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/donald-trump/12044983/Donald-Trump-muslims-New-Hampshire-Muhammad-Ali-UK-petition-latest-news-live.html

Yet, what stands out to me about this is that a lot of people are gleeful because a lot of people are way too easy to please. I mean I find it all a little ironic considering that the UK is actually very anti immigrant. 

When I visited  England in the Summer-I'm a native Englishman for the record who grew up in the states-what stood out to me was the virulence of the anti refugee language. There was a lot of criticism of David Cameron despite the harsh line he has taken.

"I do love some things about England-the history of everything. In the US we don't have history in the same way as we're such a young country. While America is about innovation, England is about preservation-this is probably even more true in continental Europe than the UK."

"The politics though are not good if you're a liberal like me. People are going crazy over migrants. Cameron is being hailed for saying he'll build a fence-though he's seen as tardy on this and even now he's saying it may take all Summer for Britain to get its arms around this-there are over 1000 migrants crossing the Thames every night and there have been some tragic deaths."

"My guess is that Trump would be seen as a lifesaver with what he's saying. In America we've more or less ruled out building a fence but that's a mainstream solution in England-they are just as anti-immigrant if not more in France."

"Again, I will say it: America is a lot more liberal than Britain. Consider how this report would go down here:"

"UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that he is drawing up plans to help France tackle a spike in attempts by migrants to enter Britain illegally via the Channel Tunnel."

"The situation is not acceptable. Starting with helping the French on their side of the border, we're going to put in more fencing, more resources, more sniffer dog teams, more assistance in any way we can," Cameron said on Friday following a meeting with Britain's emergency response committee 'Cobra'.

"Cameron is under pressure to deter the migrants, many of whom have traveled from Africa and the Middle East, after disruption to cross-Channel passenger and freight traffic."

"This is going to be a difficult issue right across the summer."

"Britain has pledged $34m so far towards improving security at the French end of the tunnel that connects both the countries."

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/08/trump-really-could-win-in-britain.html

If anything, Trump would fit in very well in a Europe that is much less fond of immigration than Americans. 

As I've noted previously, Trump rankles because of style, not substance. It's ok to crackdown on immigrants just be a little more discrete about it. I maintain his lack of discreteness will end up being a big public service. 


4 comments:

  1. Still the UK is doing Trump democrats a favor: making him even more popular with GOP voters. That's a reason to be gleeful right there. I suspect that if all 183 non-US nations on Earth (Canada and Mexico included (wait, why hasn't Mexico banned him yet???)), banned Trump, it would only increase his popularity with the base and simultaneously bring down his general poll numbers. What's not to be gleeful about?

    Actually, I'd like to see Iran, Russia, North Korea, IS, and the rump Syria NOT ban him. It'd be fun seeing Coulter, Levin, Limbaugh etc, praising those countries for standing by their man Trump.

    I see Trump as a "strong man" in a way... one who not only has the power to drag the whole Republican field to a place they're rather not publicly acknowledge, but to drag the pundits there as well.

    By the time he wins the nomination, I want to see him in Klan robes... and Rush, Ann, Levin (oh, wait, they won't let Levin in the Klan!) ... the whole gang to be proudly wearing their Klan robes as well. Maybe even reince priebus will be donning Klan robes! ... for one, Levin and neo-cons will be forced to part company with the GOP at that point, simply because a large percentage of neo-cons won't be allowed in the Klan for racial reasons.

    Now do I expect that to happen? No. Do I hope it happens none-the-less. Absolutely!

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  2. Oh, no, I wasn''talking here about the effects of the UK petition on Trump's poll numbers. I think by itself this specific thing is negligible either way.

    My point is that those who take solace in this petition as beating back and saying no to bigotry probably don't realize how anti immigrant and refugee the UK is.

    The trouble with them is they look at all the wrong places for solace.

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    1. "I think by itself this specific thing is negligible either way." Maybe. But I see an "objective function" that looks something like this: X is good if it does not decrease Trump's GOP poll numbers and it worsens his general election poll numbers. If every nation on earth, except Russia, Iran and North Korea banned Trump, I don't think that would hurt his GOP poll numbers one bit. But it would be great for Hillary... imagine the foreign policy part of the debate: "My opponent offends the whole world... except our enemies. They won't even let him in their countries!"

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  3. My point is that the folks who are gleeful about the UK thing are gleeful for the wrong reasons.

    My whole riff on Trump has been that it's a style thing but that in reality Trumpism is all around us. Ironically he is sussing it out-whatever his motivations are.

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