Brexit vote roundup

Roiled markets, Cameron's resignation, pro-EU Scotland once again feeling out of sync with the rest of the UK . . . world response to this tectonic shift got underway pretty much immediately.

Caleb Howe at RedState stresses that Squirrel-Hair is a peripheral figure in this and don't let anybody tell you otherwise:

It is not about Donald Trump. But Donald Trump will try to make it about him. The refugee crisis and the problems of massive immigration are more pronounced there than here, but if liberals had their way we'd catch up quick. Ordinary citizens, and especially those with age and wisdom, see the folly of the "take it all forever" politicians who would destroy borders and, subsequently, nations. Every American politician should at least keep that in mind.

Joseph Schatz at Politico likewise says parallels between the sentiment behind the Brit majority vote and the S-H phenomenon here in post-America are sketchy at best:

 . . . rhetorical similarities to “Make America Great Again” aside, Boris Johnson is not Donald Trump. And for all the common misgivings about globalization in both countries, and the parallels being made between Great Britain’s nativist-tinged debate over leaving the EU and the rise of conservative populism in the United States, a vote for “Brexit” doesn’t exactly equal a vote for Trump.

In the end, all politics is still local.
It’s worth remembering that the British debate over the United Kingdom’s proper relationship with the EU is not new—certainly not as new as the broad-based backlash to free trade that’s helping to drive the 2016 American election. Not even close. And more than likely, it won’t end with Thursday’s vote.

Carrie Lukas at NRO detects a sense among some Europeans that Germany - particularly Merkel - may have been a factor in Britain's vote going as it did:

One of the more thoughtful commentaries today is from Torsten Krauel in the right-of-center Die Welt.  Krauel asks whether German Chancellor Merkel is partially to blame for the Brexit and concludes her asylum policy almost certainly played a major role.  And indeed, the spectacle of Germany unilaterally deciding to change the face and future of the European Union by announcing Berlin had opened the doors to all comers – regardless of the wishes of or the impact this would have on other EU states – has been a powerful symbol of elite disconnect with the concerns of average Europeans and an uncomfortable reminder that Germany has come to dominate the union.  Krauel also points out Dover, the British end of the Channel Tunnel to the continent, voted 60 percent to leave.  Maybe this has something to do with the thousands of North African migrants seeking to storm the tunnel and cross to England? 

While loathe to admit it, Germans at some level suspect their country’s role in the discontent in Britain.  Speaking to German friends over the past several years, it’s been difficult not to come away with the sense many view the EU as an extension of Germany policy and as a respectable outlet for German nationalism that has been suppressed since the end of World War II.  A new path to German greatness, if you will, camouflaged by warm and fuzzy words about “Europeaness” and immune to complaints of skeptics, all of whom immediately are labeled as right-wing extremists – the kiss of death in German politics. 

Rick Moran at The American Thinker says the EU has already been dead for some time and just doesn't know it yet.

The survival of the EU is actually of little consequence. The union is dead and will probably be in its death throes for years. Germany, France, and a few other northern European countries will keep the dream of a united Europe alive, but on the periphery - especially the southern European nations of Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal - the writing is already on the wall. 

 My own sense is that the stratum of the postmodern world in which multinational corporations, international bodies setting standards for "process control" and applying them to an ever-expanding sphere of human activity, global-scale foundations, and  the universities preparing people for roles in that stratum have not removed the basic human yearning for a sense of place. It may be the second-most common theme of song lyrics after romantic love.

What seems like a natural way to live is like the blade of grass poking through the concrete of the not-so-natural mode of operation the central planners are trying to impose on us.

James Burnam would find al this completely understandable.

R