What I Learned From Brexit About Trumpism

Listen. Don’t Just Condemn.

I was in London while Brexit happened. Just like Trumpism, it came out of nowhere, propelled by a demagogue, fuelled by rage. Here’s what I learned.

1. The abandoned middle and poor is desperate to be heard. It wants to send a message to the elites that screwed them. A message that they are still here, that they matter, that they deserve “respect”, which is basic dignities and rights. Not just being neo serfs to financial pseudo-capitalists.
2. It’s about hearing the message, not the policy. Voters for it regretted Brexit the morning after. They’re not in it to really undo society wholesale. They are mostly frustrated to the point of rage. They want to be heard.
3. If the UK’s leaders had heard the message before Brexit, and acknowledged the suffering of the masses, really admitted their failures, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

But they did exactly what the establishment in the U.S. is doing now. Tried to tell people how they’re not really suffering, how everything’s fine. In short, the establishment tried to defend itself, the system, the broken status quo. It even mocked and taunted Brexit supporters as fools and idiots, just like the U.S. establishment is doing to Trumpists.

But by defending itself, the establishment wasn’t really listening. The voices of the abandoned weren’t being heard.

What happened? The only way left to send the message that they still count was to actually vote for Brexit.

If the States really wants to stop Trump, facts and figures and condemnation and outrage won’t help. They’ll only fuel his rise. Why?

People will have to vote for Trump to send the message that things are desperate for them.

Reality is this. The middle class is collapsing. People are getting poorer. They do feel abandoned, threatened, alone.

If there’s one thing to learn from Brexit, it’s this. Acknowledge the suffering in these broken societies. Or else. If you don’t hear people when they’re shouting, then you can’t really blame for trying to pry your ears open.

Umair

London

July 2016