Wall Street Journal: Boris Johnson Joins Trump in Redefining Conservatism

I agree with the basic thrust of this article.

It shies away though from the cultural side of the revolt against neoliberalism.

British and American politics tend to be closely in sync: Harry Truman and Clement Attlee are the beginning of postwar embedded liberalism which was dominant during the Thirty Glorious Years until the mid-1970s, LBJ and Harold Wilson represent embedded liberalism at high tide in the 1960s, Reagan and Thatcher began the era of neoliberalism in the 1980s, Clinton and Blair represent neoliberalism at high tide in the 1990s and now Johnson and Trump bookend the demise of neoliberalism and the beginning of the post-liberal era.

Wall Street Journal:

“Boris Johnson’s big election victory this week drove another nail into the coffin of the brand of conservative politics Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher first rode to power four decades ago.

As Mr. Johnson’s decisive win in a hotly contested national election illustrated, the conservative movement in the West now has become markedly more populist and nationalist, and appeals to a distinctly more working-class constituency. Fiscal restraint, once a cardinal tenet of conservatism, matters less; rewriting the rules that have governed the global economy matters more.

For now, that approach is working similarly on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Johnson prevailed by using a playbook similar to the one that delivered the White House to Mr. Trump three years ago.

“Populism is the future,” says Steve Bannon, a political strategist who helped engineer Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory. “Economic nationalism is the future.”

New York Times:

“BARLBOROUGH, England — They trudged through a stinging rain to polling stations, streams of people who once powered the left in Britain: ex-miners, supermarket clerks, retired schoolteachers, health aides.

But when they re-emerged, they had voted not for the Labour Party, the side that had shepherded them through decades of political upheaval, but instead for their old nemesis, the party long despised here for shutting down the mines and shrinking the British state: the Conservatives.

“I’m from a Labour background: the coal pits and fighting Maggie Thatcher and everything else,” said Dawn Ridsdale, 56, an unemployed sales agent, as she stood outside the converted barn in Barlborough where she cast her ballot. She had opposed Brexit, but now wanted someone with the ruthless streak of the prime minister who had closed the mines, Margaret Thatcher, to sort it out, once and for all. …”

Spectator:

“Class contempt of Victorian proportions is already being visited upon these good people, in fact. Enraged Corbynista Paul Mason is describing the election result as a ‘victory of the old over the young, racists over people of colour, selfishness over the planet’. These people seem blissfully unaware that it is such seething contempt for ordinary voters that turned so many people off the newly woke, post-working-class Labour party.

Key Corbynista Ash Sarkar wrote in the Guardian a couple of days ago:

‘It is a myth that Labour has lost the working class.’

That hasn’t aged well. Across the country the working classes have abandoned Labour, because Labour abandoned them. It sneered at their vote for Brexit; it looked down its nose at their cultural values; it called them racist and xenophobic for being critical of the European Union and concerned about mass immigration.

Labour embraced an agenda of identity politics over community values, EU neoliberalism over British patriotism and radical virtue-signalling over the ideals of family, work and togetherness. And its working-class base said no, no, no.

This is a warning to the entire political class. Do not take voters for granted. Do not insult them. Do not demean their democratic voice. Because, whatever you might say to the contrary, they have minds of their own, and they will soon make up their mind that you are a patronising git who may no longer represent their community.”

There are parallels on both sides of the Atlantic.

Trump was elected by disaffected White working class voters in the Rust Belt. The same people voted for BREXIT and just defected from the Labour Party en masse to the Conservatives. BREXIT was stymied for three years. Trump’s MAGA agenda has also been stymied for three years. Boris Johnson and the Conservatives will now have the power to push through Brexit. Johnson was weak until two days ago. Trump is a weak president who is being impeached. He hasn’t been able to get past the roadblocks thrown up by an entrenched neoliberal establishment. Not yet.

The challenges facing Trump and Johnson are the same: runaway immigration, rapidly changing demographics, “identity politics” becoming more salient, an unstable coalition of working class voters lorded over by a constipated oligarchy of wealthy donors and a lack of a vision and policies to move forward. Trump has been deferring to conservative elites and giving the donors what they want and that is rapidly catching up with him. In the UK, Labour was so awful that the rebellion of their base caught up with them before this same dynamic caught up with Johnson because the BREXIT and UKIP vote was separate from the Tories until the last election.

The next thirty years of Western history will be dominated by the National Question, changing demographics, the rise of China, the rise of AI and numerous other things. The fundamental issues are the same in all Western countries. The 2010s were the waning years of neoliberalism and a transition period. The next decade will be the beginning of the full blown crisis which will bring resolution to some of these issues. It is like watching a pot of water that is warm (2000s) and starting to boil (2010s) immediately before it boils over (2020s).

VDARE defines the National Question as being whether the U.S. (or any Western liberal democracy) can survive as a nation-state and as the political expression of a particular people. Cosmopolitanism is the notion that all human beings belong to a single community that is based on a shared morality. The bipartisan consensus of the “mainstream” under liberalism is cosmopolitanism. It holds that all European peoples have no legitimate claim to their nation-states and should be open to settlement, colonization and demographic replacement by all people because all European countries are based on nothing more than liberal values.

About Hunter Wallace 12380 Articles
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14 Comments

  1. May Britain never be influential on the world stage again. They more than any other European ethnicity are responsible for clown world. England fought two world wars for the Rothschilds.

    Some think it’s nostalgic to pine for National Socialist Germany. Had it not been for England’s war mongering for the jews, National Socialist Germany would be a nation in the current day.

  2. Notice that the frustrated Labour voter in the article liked the idea of an authoritarian leader coming in and cleaning up society. Without defining what that might mean. She’s not quite out of the multiculti mindset. As soon as that person feels “something” has been done, whatever that is, she’ll go back to her usual Matrix pod and vote for her old party.

    But if a pol in a major party actually said they wanted to Make Britain Sane Again (an authoritarian populist, perhaps?), there might be a silent majority voting for them. Even though language is policed, it doesn’t take much cleverness to communicate certain sensible ideas to a public hungry for change of a particular kind. The public isn’t brave, though, so the power-hungry pols tend not to be as well. What will it take for an economically left, socially right pol of guts and character to speak up? Seriously, what will it take? Are there any?

  3. As Boris Johnson is joining Trump in redefining conservatism, I guess Boris Johnson is going to issue the British equivalent of an American Presidential Order and OUTLAW any negative criticism of Jew Israel or Jews. There is to be NO criticism of Jews period. We’re supposed to look up to the Jews as if they’re angels, angels and saints. The Jew-love is so overboard, it’s so crazy. Because conservatism these days means Jew NEO-conservatism in other words, ZIONISM. Jew Zionism is another term for Jew COMMUNISM.

    The only thing being conserved by the “conservatives” is JEW ZIONISM/JEW COMMUNISM. And JEW COMMUNISM means Open Borders and unending immigration of third worlders into White lands. Something BOTH Donald Trump and Boris Johnson support.

    I voted for Trump in 2016 but I won’t be voting for him in 2020 — not after signing a Presidential Order making it illegal to criticize Jew Israel on American college campuses. I don’t think abridging the First Amendment is “Making America Great Again”. Abridging the First Amendment is making America even more Jew COMMIE. I don’t think JEW COMMUNISM is anything great. Jew Communism is horrible.

    Jew Zionism and Jew Communism is one and the same thing — and Trump is a MEGA Zionist. And Boris Johnson is also MEGA Zionist, he calls himself ” a passionate Zionist”. So England is screwed, whether England leaves the E.U. or not. Brexit or no Brexit, England will continue to get flooded with third worlders — just like a Wall on the border or no Wall on the border, the USA will continue to get flooded with third worlders. That’s what the JEW ZIONISTS/COMMUNISTS want, and that’s what Donald Trump and Boris Johnson want.

    Trump wants to increase legal immigration, increase the number of legal immigrants, He didn’t say that during the presidential campaign of 2016. He lied thru his teeth during the presidential campaign about the immigration issue. And now he’s abridging the First Amendment. With the gun control issue, he wants Red Flag laws. He didn’t say that during the presidential campaign. Gun control issue : Another issue he lied about during the 2016 presidential campaign.

    He didn’t say he wanted to abridge the First Amendment on the campaign trail — one got the impression he was all for Free Speech. He very much wanted to leave everyone with that impression, that he loves Free Speech ; But now that he’s president he’s abridging the First Amendment. So he lied about that also, his love for Free Speech, another one of his lies. I think Boris Johnson is cut from the same cloth as Trump.

  4. Trump is a weak president who is being impeached. He hasn’t been able to get past the roadblocks thrown up by an entrenched neoliberal establishment.

    I see. So now he’s a weak president who is trying to do his best despite the internal resistance he is encountering. I don’t know why, but I had the impression he was Blompf the traitor, who only outmaneuvered his opponents through a cleverer (or more daring) use of the old Republican playbook (campaign on white grievance, enact neoliberalism).

    You know, it’s okay to be uncertain about this. But the way you write your posts, you’re anything but uncertain.

    • I’ve written volumes about Trump.

      1.) It is true he is a weak president. After all, he will be impeached next weak.

      2.) It is not entirely his fault that he hasn’t been able to push through his agenda. He has had to deal with the Democrats, the courts, the media, the Deep State, the Republican establishment, etc.

      3.) At the same time, Trump isn’t particularly interested in pushing his agenda or governing. He tends to delegate the responsibilities of governing the country like a CEO. He seems himself as the “leading man” of the administration. Jared Kushner is in charge of virtually everything from immigration to Middle East peace.

      4.) Trump isn’t ethical. He ran in 2016 as a populist who was self financing his campaign. It was a trick. As soon as he won, he cut the big donors in during the transition and has catered to their will.

      5.) Trump hasn’t tried to reform the party. Quite the opposite. He endorsed Mitt Romney. In contrast, he is currently trying to stop Jeff Sessions from regaining his Senate seat here in Alabama. He is not an ideologue.

      There are many shades of nuance to Trump and his presidency. I have written about every single one of these angles.

  5. TY for the comic relief, HW:

    “Trump’s agenda stymied for 3 years”.

    nobody “stymied” Drumpf….but Drumpf hisself.

    He’s been a liberal demoncrat and Wall Street Zionist stooge

    his entire adult life. Apparently you didn’t notice,

    but he’s now scuppered the China tariffs in return for

    3 licks and 2 promises from the Chicoms. Drumpf

    has now Jew’d us on every single populist promise he made.

    and BJ will do the same. Except for this difference:

    BJ is even more open-borders/anti-White than Drumpf.

  6. Here is an opportunity BEGGING to be taken advantage of !

    It is up to us, our movement to interject itself in the public arena’s discourse and IMPOSE OUR talking points of what Conservatism – REAL conservatism and true to its meaning – really means.

    Following is a dictionary analysis, which we can use as a metaphor for OUR requirements in explaining OUR cause what ‘conservatism’ means to us. Means to all of us.

    A dictionary analysis of the verb ‘CONSERVE’ and projecting these meanings of this word into our talking points, i.e. our culture, our Heritage, our Ethnic/Race values, e.t.c:

    ” Definition of conserve

    transitive verb
    1 : to keep in a safe or sound state He conserved his inheritance. especially : to avoid wasteful or destructive use of : to conserve natural resources conserve our wildlife, our culture, our Heritage, our Ethnic/Race values, e.t.c

    2 : to preserve with struggle/defence/sacrifice/unity-cohesion/force

    3 : to maintain (a quantity and a quality) constant during a process of social, physical, or evolutionary change, to maintain our Values.

    We need to be out there, IRL, making sure we are pushing the overton window further towards our side.

    Nick Fuentes,
    TDS and crew
    HW
    EM Jones,
    Jesse Lee Peterson,
    TRU News
    Daily Stormer
    Cantwell
    Striker/National-justice
    and so on….

    What have I written in the past, remember?

    EVERYTHING THAT ADDS to OUR CAUSE WE SUPPORT and ANYTHING THAT TAKES AWAY WE DISCARD

    and we NEVER EVER ‘punch’ Right – NEVER !

    • Watch out when mentioning DailyStormer.
      CuckSpahn and Madam Denise are always on the lookout for the evil incels who mentions DS.

  7. Eric Striker was onto something when he made a prediction a couple of years ago. He believed that “The Right” in America would be both anti-Zionist and anti-Capitalist. There is a move on the ground in both the UK and the US for the GOP/Conservative Party to morph into “Right-Wing Worker’s Parties”.

  8. More fresh air from BREXIT…

    Haley trying to walk back her Yankee like Confederate Flag destroying…

    Maybe Ted Cruz will even repent of turning on Nathan Bedford Forrest…

    May the BREXIT be with them …

  9. Interestingly, Jews apparently defected from labor and voted conservative. I’m not very informed though in how the parties differ and whether it’s analogous to the difference between the American parties.

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