Liberal Brexiteers
Sanders’s tweet is better punctuated and capitalized, but it’s the same argument as Trump’s. Zero economic sense, 100 percent ideological wi
This is such a good article, especially as it was written by the very liberal John Gruber.
I sometimes fear that any criticism of the left means the critic is branded a conservative. Or worse, that the critic lacks critical-thinking skills and is regurgitating conservative arguments.
In Britain, there is a second, more toxic layer to public debate: EU membership.
The more I study EU membership, the more I find it peculiar that "not being in the EU" is considered a radical¹, right-wing position².
Everyone understands why policies that are "too right-wing" are a bad idea, or that "too little regulation" is a bad idea. But it's difficult to explain the opposite, without someone writing you off as "a conservative" and promptly ignoring you.
That John Gruber, a liberal, points out nonsense from Bernie Sanders without being branded conservative... that makes me hopeful that we (liberal Brexiteers) can point out the problems of EU membership, without someone writing us off as "a Brexiteer" and promptly ignoring us.
¹ My logic for why Brexit is not radical is this: Of the 193 members of the UN, only 27 are in the EU. By not being in the EU, the UK is now in the majority of countries who are not in the EU nor anything like it. (Nothing else like the EU exists.)
Canada relies more on goods trade with the US than the UK does the EU, and Canada has decided against even a Canada-US Customs Union, let alone asking the US to legislate on its behalf. Customs borders are perfectly ordinary; an almost non-issue.
² The benefit of Brexit is that we become an independent nation. That's it. The Vote Leave campaign certainly implied we can use Brexit freedoms to pursue right-wing policies, but that was neither guaranteed, nor the only option. All the benefits so far are left-leaning: an increase in environmental protections, greater workers rights, and finally... what appears to be more affordable housing as immigration numbers plummet. Also, the Brexit vote depended heavily on the red wall, so named because of their history of always voting Labour.
