Another Must-Read: The Aftermath of Brexit

Politicians being selfish and greedy. Where have I heard that before?

This week’s antics of Gove and Johnson are a useful reminder. For the way one has treated the other is the way both have treated the country. Some may be tempted to turn Johnson into an object of sympathy – poor Boris, knifed by his pal – but he deserves none. In seven days he has been exposed as an egomaniac whose vanity and ambition was so great he was prepared to lead his country on a path he knew led to disaster, so long as it fed his own appetite for status.

He didn’t believe a word of his own rhetoric, we know that now. His face last Friday morning, ashen with the terror of victory, proved it. That hot mess of a column he served up on Monday confirmed it again: he was trying to back out of the very decision he’d persuaded the country to make. And let’s not be coy: persuade it, he did. Imagine the Leave campaign without him. Gove, Nigel Farage and Gisela Stuart: they couldn’t have done it without the star power of Boris.

He knew it was best for Britain to remain in the EU. But it served his ambition to argue otherwise. We just weren’t meant to fall for it. Once we had, he panicked, vanishing during a weekend of national crisis before hiding from parliament. He lit the spark then ran away – petrified at the blaze he started.

He has left us to look on his works and despair. The outlook for the economy is so bleak, the governor of the Bank of England talks of “economic post-traumatic stress disorder.” The Economist Intelligence Unit projects a 6% contraction by 2020, an 8% decline in investment, rising unemployment, falling tax revenues and public debt to reach 100% of our national output. No wonder George Osborne casually announced that the central aim of his fiscal policy since 2010 – eradicating the deficit – has now been indefinitely postponed, thereby breaking what had been the defining commitment of the Tories’ manifesto at the last election, back in the Paleolithic era known as 2015.

Via Digby.

Maybe this resonates the way it does because it came right after this:

I can't help but enjoy reading hysterical essays from the Wall Street Journal these days even though Trump's popularity with tens of millions of Americans makes me feel sick to my stomach when I stop to think about it:

Before they gather in Cleveland for their convention, it’s not too soon for Republicans to begin thinking about what exactly a Donald Trump defeat might be like...

[W]hat happens if Mr. Trump decides he can’t win and no longer is willing to throw good money after bad. Unless they were born on a turnip truck yesterday, campaign vendors will be the first to figure it out. Look for them quickly to cut off services rather than get stiffed in the inevitable Trump campaign bankruptcy filing.

Mr. Trump’s harsher Republican critics are kidding themselves to think Mr. Trump is crazy or unstable and will suffer a breakdown. More likely, he will simply and coldbloodedly toss the ball to the GOP, saying, in effect, “If you want to pay for some events or TV, I’m available. Otherwise I’m done.” The GOP would then have to shoulder the dual burden of propping up a minimally respectable Trump campaign while also distancing its down-ballot candidates from Mr. Trump so they might survive.

And that’s the optimistic scenario. Mr. Trump has learned the value of audacity. He might well decide to cover his retreat and preserve his amour propre with a flurry of lawsuits and conspiracy theories about a “rigged” election.

We've already heard the "rigged" mantra. And we already know that Trump is a liar who's out for himself -- at least, those of us with two brain cells to rub together do. It's no news that the Republican leadership is now faced with the prospect of the party disintegrating under them; that's why they're so desperate to neutralize Trump. And question is, can they do it without disastrous results: Trump's supporters are ignorant and gullible, and not averse to violence. (Rush Limbaugh's little fantasy about the left erupting in violence if Trump wins the election is a classic bit of projection, but what happens if Trump gets done out of the nomination? Some of his supporters are planning on bringing their guns to Cleveland, after all.)

There are some frightening parallels between the Trump campaign here and the Leave campaign in Britain. There's hope that the move to revisit the vote there can have some success -- it's not an instant process, despite the calls from some European leaders to get the hell out asap. As for how it's going to play out here, I'm not prepared to make any predictions, aside from the inarguable conclusion that the GOP has already suffered severe damage. As far as that goes, though, all I've got to say to them is "You made it -- you own it."