There’s a great television ad on right now. It’s about the idyllic town of “Denial, Ohio”. People live in nice suburban homes, eat in cute diner-style restaurants, and have kids that are “above average”. And those kids would never, ever, use opiates. Parents don’t need to worry, or talk to them about it. They live in “Denial”.
Deny the Facts
In this week of overwhelming breaking news, maybe the one thing that is coming clear is that we all live in “Denial”. After another day of listening to the Impeachment hearings (we’ve seen them so much they’ve become either old friends, or old enemies) one side or the other is in total denial. The facts of the Democratic side seem undisputed. The determination of the Republicans seems unrelenting. They are two groups, talking past each other. No one is hearing.
It seems so simple. The President set up a “side” group to push Ukraine to stir up investigations of Biden and Crowd Strike. They had to disrupt the “regular order” to get it done, and fired the Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Giuliani, and the “three Amigos” of Perry, Sondland and Volker, made sure the message got through to Ukraine. Mulvaney made sure the money was stopped. And the President himself drove the point home, asking “…do us a favor, though…” in the July 25th phone call.
Ukrainians knew the day of the phone call that the money was on hold. Vice President Pence and the “three amigos” hammered the point home. The Ukrainian’s scheduled an interview with Fareed Zakarias of CNN to announce the investigations. But the whistleblower’s report surfaced, and the President was caught. Like any kid caught doing something wrong, he tried to cover it up, telling Sondland for the record there was no “quid pro quo”. But like most guilty kids, it didn’t work, and the whole scheme fell apart.
Deny the Conspiracy
Republicans on the committee refuse to accept ANY of those facts. Each point is in dispute, and the minority is willing to throw almost anyone under the bus to protect the President. Ask Gordon Sondland, or Alexander Vinland, or Maria Yovanovitch or Fiona Hill. They have all had their reputations trashed by the Republicans.
And in all of this, the President has gotten one of his wishes. Joe Biden’s problems with his son, Hunter, are front and center for the entire nation to see. Making that happen was so important to the minority, that a Congressman, vulnerable with personal substance abuse issues of his own, put himself on the line. He called out Hunter Biden for drug abuse. Democrats reasonably noted “…the pot was calling the kettle black.”
This morning they will continue the fight, but ultimately the Committee will approve the two Articles of Impeachment. The full House will debate and vote on it next week.
Brexit
But Democrats may be in “Denial” as well. There was other news yesterday, buried under the rhetoric of the Committee debate. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party under Prime Minister Boris Johnson won an overwhelming electoral victory. “Brexit,” the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, is now a “done deal,” one way or another.
The ramifications for the UK are historic. Scotland may determine to break away from the nation, going independently on its own to stay in the EU. Northern Ireland will be forced to find a way to “harden” its border with the rest of Ireland, and concerns of a return of the “troubles” are rising.
All of this is change, and it’s scary. But it’s the UK’s problem. Here’s what Americans might take from this. In June of 2016, the UK voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. It was a shocking outcome, and we later found that the forces of social media manipulation by the Russians and private companies like Cambridge Analytica, were deeply involved.
Now, after over three years of failed negotiations, the voters of the UK have made a clear statement: “Get Brexit Done,” the campaign slogan of the Conservative Party. The Labor Party, led by the polarizing figure of Jeremy Corbyn, was dramatically rejected.
Tell the Future
The 2016 Brexit vote foreshadowed the 2016 Trump Presidential victory. There are lots of differences between the two countries and the two elections. But there was a shared overall theme in both: moving forward into a multi-cultural world, or stepping back towards an insular, more homogenous, past. Both the UK and the US narrowly determined to step back .
In December 2019, the voters of the United Kingdom “doubled down” on that choice. Despite all of the failures of the Trump Administration, is the United States preparing to do the same in 2020? Are the Democrats, like the Labor Party, fooling themselves?
There are alternate theories. Analysts point to Corbyn as being too polarizing, too “left” for the UK electorate. They warn that the Democratic Party has candidates just like that, far to the left of American voters. Some warn that nominating those candidates could produce the same rejection. It’s hard to “test” the veracity of that hypothesis, but one thing is sure.
We need to make sure we’re not just living in “Denial”.
