Grandma Voted Leave. I Didn’t.
My gran and I sat down the other day to talk about life, politics, spirituality — usual things; when the subject pivoted from Trump and America, to the UK and Brexit.
It’s worth mentioning right off the bat that I voted remain, and campaigned — quite lazily, for everyone around me to do the same. I smugly assumed everyone would side with Remain because the ‘experts’ predicted so. Because reason always wins over sheer emotion. Because unless you’re an obvious racist, fuck Farage and fuck UKIP. Right?
Well, no. (Shocker). This assumption was stupid, baseless and ultimately dangerous.
During the final week of the referendum my mum asked me which side I was voting for (Remain or Leave). I responded in a manner that would have made an Eaton clone proud. I sneered, looked out the window, and stated “you’re stupid if you vote to leave”.
My mum was silent for a while, not overtly acknowledging what I had just uttered. A few seconds past then in a calm, subdued manner she asked:
I didn’t respond. Not verbally anyway. Merely sighed and carried on staring out the window, aimlessly. Self absorbed.
1. First instance of lazy campaigning.
I assumed everyone could see the leave campaign and ‘Make America Great Again’, for what they largely were— xenophobic vehicles driven by pied piper demagogues. Men of tremendous wealth claiming to be common folk. False narratives. Sorry, Fake-News/Alternative Facts/Post-Truth, whatever. Now if we’re talking specifically about increasing democracy and transparency within politics then I could get behind Vote Leave.
Unfortunately, it was too intertwined with UKIP, BNP remnants and flat out racists who all relied way too much on manipulating hate and fear. On lying. On dividing people. I couldn’t throw my hat in with that lot. I opted for what I saw as the lesser of two evils. Voting remain. A binary I did not fall for with Trump and Clinton — the world was taking an L in either case.
So back to Grama (Grandma) — I’ve called her this since I was first drew breath.
Grama devoutly watches the news on television. Almost as much as Songs of Praise. In fact a lot of elderly people still get the bulk of their world affairs knowledge from television. As you’d remember, mainstream media gifted Farage (and Trump) the spotlight at every opportunity they could. I’m talking wall-to-wall coverage. Sensationalism makes BANK. And capitalism will capitalism. One of the fundamental issues with our media is it’s over-reliance on seeking profit. A good thing in terms of driving innovation. A crux, in terms of upholding good journalistic standards.
Much of what ails our media system stems from its extreme commercialism. The always-controversial Trump was irresistible for ratings-driven news outlets, and their endless profit-seeking helped legitimize a dangerous politics… Media are beholden to their owners and to the advertisers who pay them.
Farage was no different. His soundbites rang out 24/7 around the campaign “Take Back Control”, “Brussels Bureaucrats”, “Migrants, Migrants, Migrants, Bad, Bad, Bad”. These sentiments generally fell on deaf ears with most young people but for the elderly and most over 45, they struck a deep chord. They helped legitimize his platform and sentiments as both viable and seemingly common sense.
Grama (71 going on 45) fit the bill. Remember how I said I campaigned lazily for Remain? With her, it was slightly different. During the referendum she was the only person I somewhat (above lazily, less than enthusiastically), tried to convince to vote Remain. I explained to her that it was due to the government’s inadequate planning and crippling austerity that we were experiencing a joint housing, NHS and employment crisis; that these problems were not the fault of refugees and migrants; that we were not being “overrun”. That the effects of benefit tourism were grossly overemphasised, people were not coming here for our already broken NHS. She was being fed fallacies. Lies. And they tasted good because they seemed simple and easy to digest. They addressed her concerns.
Refugees and migrants were the easy scapegoat. The outsider, the foreigner. The visible. What she herself was once so demonised for being. Different.
My gran herself was a victim to the same xenophobic rhetoric disguised as ‘common sense’ when she came to this country 47 years ago in February 1970.
A biting wind immediately working to removing vestiges of Accra’s beautifully baked aroma and ‘pepper bird’ alarm clock chickens.
When we exchanged opinions during the referendum she argued with me, protested, but largely seemed to accept my points after a while. Seemed to.
2. Second instance of lazy campaigning. Assuming you’ve won for no apparent reason.
When we spoke the other day she said she voted to leave. For a split second it sounded like a family member admitting they suffered from a heavy drug problem. I played intervention style scenarios in my head. “It’s ok, Grama” “This is a safe space, Grama”, “We love you Grama” [Cue choir of tears].
I didn’t respond immediately and she continued. Stating how she now felt “lied to” by the leave campaign. How she now realised that the same vile rhetoric we heard -and still hear, from Trump was also the same from Farage.
“Them and us. Them and us. Them and us.” Dividing language. Language she became accustomed to hearing when she arrived at Heathrow in 1970. Language she had forgotten. Years of toiling away in this country had mentally promoted her from a ‘them’ to an ‘us’. The blindfold of an assimilated identity.
Now that she wasn’t caught up in the referendum storm it was easier to observe the style of politics currently being manipulated by Trump to reach the disenfranchised. A style identical to vote leave. That same shade of politics which was used to reach her.
‘I can fix your issue quickly and simply’ politics. She’d been duped and she now realised it. Remain didn’t have an answer to tackle the suffering of people. Their stance was essentially “We’re doing great, let’s carry on!”. Hilary’s was “We’re doing great, let’s make it better”.
Trump…Make America great, again. Brexit came with a reverence of the British Empire. When things were grand and proper.
Both leave and Trump hit home with the discontent.
I wasn’t upset or even disappointed over the way Grama voted. In fact, before she began to justify her decision I already knew her reasons. She said she voted leave was because she saw how hard it was for me to get a job. How hard it was for my mum to get a new house after losing ours. And how increasingly worried she became for my little brother that he would have neither access to housing nor a job. Vote Leave promised to address these issues. Remain didn’t. Hilary, didn’t. Politicians have long since told us that “things are getting better”, but this is clearly a false narrative for millions of people across the world. Populist extremist are gaining power across the world because they are listening. Responding.
When you’re at the bottom of our classist society you only see short-term. Day-to-day. ‘How can I survive? How can I eat? What’s more important: gas or electricity?’ Politicians view the long-con. Indeed they are very out of touch with the people. Even when they talk about the ‘suffering underclass’ and “just about managing”, this sincerity is suspect at best.
A lot of elderly folks were concerned with how over the course of their lives, nothing has seemingly improved. This was the same for rural white Americans brought up believing in the infallible ‘American dream’. Work hard, achieve success. Live happy. They lost their jobs and this dream became a lie. For them, something needed to change. Drastically. Then here comes Mr. Farage and Mr. Trump. Charismatic ‘people’ with short, simple answers that the everyday person could understand. People, not politicians.
Grama, like millions of other leave voters, voted for a man that they thought they understood and who understood them. That’s all politics has ever been. What are your issues? How can I help? — “By the people, for the people”.
Somewhere along the line politics became theatrics and this relationship was lost.
Grama regrets her vote. She realised now that Brexit was never about helping ‘the people’ it was about power. As politics has long since become.
I’ll conclude with this. This piece isn’t made to attack those that voted leave. I recognise there is a myriad of different reasons for why people voted leave — accountability, transparency, border security, anti-establishment, fuck Cameron (Yes), fuck Osbourne (Yes x2) or, simply racism and xenophobia. The problem is that the left leaning side has become so self-absorbed that we no longer try to engage those that feel hard done by the system. Leftist generally look to dismiss everyone that voted Trump or Leave as racists — washing their hands of engaging those voters. We assume because the moral high-ground is clearly ours we are above engaging these groups. This has created a bubble. A ‘safe space’. Where we plug our fingers into our ears and scream really, really loudly. Whilst we do this, the world burns down around us.
We assume that reason will always triumph over racism and xenophobia. Disney ideology.
Listen, ‘Good’ will not always defeat ‘evil’. If you believe something and feel passionately about it talk to your people. Seriously talk to them. Have an open conversation. See where you stand. Take a stand. Join an organisation trying to make a difference. Make a difference yourself. Volunteer your time. Donate. Translate your thoughts and tweets into positive action. Do something. Anything.
Those who voted for Trump and Leave are not all necessarily racist, conservative, far right, or even right leaning. A lot of them are mere people, like Grama; seeking answers to questions politicians became tone deaf to a long time ago.
If we don’t want to see maniacal figures like Trump seize power again we all need to do a better job of speaking to each other.
