Gary Johnson: UK rejected ‘crony capitalism’ with Brexit
By Harper Neidig, TheHill.com, June 25th, 2016:
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson hailed the outcome of the Brexit vote, applauding the United Kingdom for rejecting “crony capitalism” by choosing to leave the European Union.
“I think what the Brexit vote represents is Britain saying, look they’ve had an end to the crony capitalism of the European Union,” he said during a speech at Politicon on Saturday, adding that EU regulations had hampered trade for the U.K.
Johnson also told the Washington Post that Americans should not lecture the British over the vote.
Read the rest of The Hill article here.
On Brexit and immigration ruling, Libertarian presidential hopeful swerves
Excerpt from The Washington Post, June 24th, 2016 article by David Weigel and Mary Jordan:
On Friday, Johnson weighed in on Brexit long after Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had exchanged blows. “We can view Britain’s exit from the [European Union] as some kind of catastrophic event, or as an opportunity,” Johnson said in a statement to The Washington Post. “It is perfectly appropriate for the British people to make their own decisions about their own economic futures. It is not for us, either previously or today, to lecture them about their own best interests. The EU has, for some time, been pulling Britain down a path to unsustainable entitlements and away from the opportunities the free market offers. That voters rejected that path is not surprising.”
Thomas Knapp: “Brexit is still years away, and it’s not safe to assume that the instruction will be followed. In fact, I’d say it’s more than likely that the negotiations will be intentionally made very frightening and that there will be a new referendum in which the public has been sufficiently scared to vote the ‘right way’.”
There certainly should be another referendum. The Leave campaign was a rather fragile coalition, of anti-federalist libertarians and anti-trade, anti-immigration nativists (very much like the Ron Paul movement). Whatever the government does now – whether rejoin EFTA, or build a wall around the island – is going to alienate one part of that coalition; there’s no way to satisfy both. The only way to resolve that dilemma will be a new referendum.
;3
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“The Brexit vote was non-binding. Parliament still has to act on it.”
Yeah, a lot of people haven’t noticed that. They think that as soon as the votes were counted, the UK was not in the EU any more.
The Brexit vote was an instruction — and a non-binding one, as you mention — to the UK government to begin negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the Maastricht treaty which defines the EU. Assuming that the government follows that instruction, the actual Brexit is still years away, and it’s not safe to assume that the instruction will be followed. In fact, I’d say it’s more than likely that the negotiations will be intentionally made very frightening and that there will be a new referendum in which the public has been sufficiently scared to vote the “right way.”
The Brexit vote was non-binding. Parliament still has to act on it.
br: The Brexit will not have a great impact on the world, but it may never actually happen in any case
me: Yes, I’ve heard of the counter referendum, by how are you so sure there will be no great impact on the world? It strikes me as a risk dampener, with businesses pulling back — possibly firmly — on marginal projects. I’d say the US is already skidding toward recession, and the Euro Zone has been severely challenged for some time now.
Something disruptive like this, coupled with more terrorism, and I fear that we could be in for a world of hurt.
Your take?
@ Random guy
“So from what I can tell, unless the Constitution Party comes out and declares their opposition to Brexit…”
Why would we do that?
Here: http://www.cpidaho.org/archives/kick-the-high-hat/
The Brexit will not have a great impact on the world, but it may never actually happen in any case. There is a movement for a new vote. There is a strong possibility this do-over will happen and the outcome will be reversed.
So from what I can tell, unless the Constitution Party comes out and declares their opposition to Brexit (unlikely, as their platform regarding Europe is to basically “mind your own business and we’ll mind our own business”), at this point the Democratic Party is the only notable US party to be against Brexit. Jill Stein was fine for it (she criticized that some of it was motivated by anti-immigration but was still in support on the whole), Donald Trump and the Republicans were fine with it, and now Gary Johnson seems fine with it.
The comments seem remarkably at variance with the actual Leave Campaign issues, which were immigration and overcrowding of facilities (schools, National Health Service) arising from excessive population increase.
Also, It is legal to own a machine gun, just as it is legal to drive a car, in most of the United States, gary Johnson notwithstanding.
“We can view Britain’s exit from the [European Union] as some kind of catastrophic event, or as an opportunity,” Johnson said…”
That hardly sounds like “credible analysis”.
The only person to give a credible analysis of Britain leaving the E.U. Finally! The elitists and crony capitalists have lost this round. Great Brittan, welcome to the Revolution!