Sometimes It’s Better To Be Lucky Than Good, Populist Edition

In 2015 there was no way the UK would vote to leave the European Union, so Prime Minister David Cameron promised to call a ‘Brexit’ referendum as a cost-free sop to his party’s right wing in the upcoming election. The Conservatives won big, and Cameron kept his promise to run the meaningless referendum. But against all odds and contrary to nearly every election-day poll, Brexit won, flushing Cameron out of politics, pulling the UK out of the EU, and handing a huge victory to a populist coalition led by the UK Independence Pary’s Nigel Farage.
In 2016 comedians and mainstream Democrats encouraged Donald Trump to run for president, convinced he would generate lots of good jokes and possibly damage the field of ‘legitimate’ Republican presidential candidates. He did both, but to a far greater extent than his early boosters anticipated, placing the world’s most important government in the hands of a brand-new populist movement.
Also in 2016, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi convinced the legislature to shift some of its powers to the executive branch. But because he wanted a popular mandate for what might otherwise be perceived as executive overreach, Renzi called a referendum to ratify the changes and promised to quit if it failed. The referendum went down in flames, Renzi did indeed quit, and the populist Five Star Movement now has a real shot at taking power within the year.

This post was published at DollarCollapse on JANUARY 29, 2017.