On Sunday, left-wing CNN’s Fareed Zakaria described Brexit’s supporters as poorly educated, archaic, and reactionary elderly white persons driven by racism, xenophobia, and fear of modern technology.
Zakaria explained what he saw as the new political divide of the 21st century:
“We are now watching the emergence of a new political divide that is likely to shape the politics of the Western world for the next 50 years. Who voted for Brexit? 68% of Britons who did not finish high school according to the Wall Street Journal, and who voted against it? In other words who voted to stay in Europe? 70% of college graduates. Those who voted for Brexit were disproportionately older, white, working class, less educated, and poorer. Those who voted to remain in Europe were younger, ethnically diverse, better educated and better off. These divisions will sound familiar to Americans because for the most part, they mirror the divide we’re seeing this presidential election. The single factor that best predicts a Trump voter is a college degree. If you have it, you say you will vote against him. If you don’t, you’re for him.”
Besides erroneously conflating Europe with the EU superstate, Zakaria depends on unsourced WSJ data to cast Brexit’s supporters as more ignorant than its opponents. Echoing left-wing contempt for political dissidents, Zakaria described Brexiteers as political naifs.
“It seems to me there is going to be considerable remorse and regret among those who voted for Brexit without really understanding what it means,” says Zakaria.
Connecting Donald Trump to the Brexit movement, Zakaria referred to an article from The Economist describing “xenophobia” in Europe. Entitled, “The march of Europe’s little Trumps,” the left-wing magazine denigrates opposition to the unprecedented status quo of immigration in the West as “anti-immigrant populism.”
“Donald Trump, for example, would like to remake the Republicans into a populist, protectionist, nationalist, and xenophobic party,” says Zakria. “Whether or not he succeeds, his compatriots in Britain won a big battle on Friday.”
The left-right paradigm of politics, claimed Zakaria, was moving towards obsolescence. Today’s political divide, concluded Zakaria, was framed as being between supporters of an “open” versus “closed” world.
No mention was made of the growing distance – both physically and metaphorically – between governors and the governed via the EU’s establishment and expansion.
No mention was made of the outsourcing of British national sovereignty to foreign superstate bureaucrats in Brussels.
No mention was made of an increasingly parasitic and extractive class of EU politicians and bureaucracies.
No mention was made of the increasingly tightening sphere of freedom around individuals via the EU’s mass production of laws and regulations.
No mention was made of demographic destruction wrought by the EU’s irresponsible immigration and refugee policies.
No mention was made of Islamic terrorism and its connection to the flow of millions of Muslims into Europe facilitated and encouraged by the EU.
Zakaria presents himself as an objective analyst of international relations and global political economy.
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