Britain has been in chaos for many weeks and in a state of uncertainty since before the 2016 referendum in which voters demanded departure from the European Union. The mayhem is due not to the impending Brexit but to the machinations of a large group of politicians who, having been elected promising to fulfill Brexit, went on to stymie it by any and all means possible.
Since Boris Johnson became prime minister, the anti-democratic, anti-Brexit forces have brought the United Kingdom’s politics to a standstill. Johnson’s opponents not only refused to approve a deal for an orderly Brexit, but they also refused for weeks to vote to allow the early election that could break the logjam, one way or another. That’s because they fear losing.
But it is also true that while bringing progress to a screeching halt by erecting barriers across every path forward, they could not actually stop the ground shifting beneath them, and Johnson built what eventually became overwhelming pressure for a return to democratic government.
Finally, Parliament has agreed to hold an election on Dec. 12. Either Johnson will be punished for his dogged pursuit of Brexit, or the political establishment’s intractable resistance will fall to bits. Polls point to Johnson’s Conservative Party as the likely victor. Yet nothing can be taken for granted.
This election holds a special and unusual risk for Americans that British elections historically have not. If the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn were to triumph, America’s dearest ally would become a new adversary overnight. Corbyn supports Russia’s tyrant, Vladimir Putin, Iran’s theocratic Shiite regime, various nationalist terrorists, and anti-Semitic groups worldwide. He despises America. He can be counted on to turn his nose up at the special relationship, which is nurtured by common interests and a common legal heritage, that Americans and Britons have developed in the centuries since our unfortunate misunderstandings of the late 18th century.
It would be one thing if Corbyn were merely a left-wing politician with socialistic ideas, along the lines of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Unfortunately, he is much worse — an actual unrepentant holdover from the Cold War who even now remains an apologist for Soviet socialism. He remains captive to every anti-American trope of the late 20th century.
Corbyn absurdly remained a Soviet sympathizer for decades after the USSR collapsed. Those who think President Trump insufficiently supportive of NATO haven’t seen anything. As recently as 2014, Corbyn was caught on tape condemning the alliance and asserting that it had only been formed to “promote a Cold War with the Soviet Union.” He said NATO should “close down.”
Corbyn not only sympathized with but also socialized with Irish Republican Army terrorists, bringing members of their political arm to Westminster at a time when the organization was still murdering British people with bombs and bullets. He has repeatedly refused to condemn the IRA, insisting whenever he discusses the matter on making excuses or comparisons to all sides. He also attended a 2012 conference with two Hamas terrorists, referring to them on Iranian state television as “brothers.”
If Corbyn wins, Britain becomes an unreliable ally or, perhaps more accurately, a hostage of hostile anti-American forces. Intelligence sharing would have to be suspended. And that is to say nothing of the economic spillover that could result from his terrible, outdated ideas about renationalizing the British economy.
Americans can only hope and pray that, in Britain’s Dec. 12 election, Corbyn’s two-faced strategy on Brexit backfires. It is up to Britons to decide their nation’s fate, but we earnestly hope that even voters who oppose Brexit have the sense to choose someone other than Corbyn. A third-place finish might even be enough to send the Labour Party into a needed and delayed period of soul-searching about what it stands for.
