An English Trump

From Truthout:

Britain's New Prime Minister Is Nationalist, Racist and Vain. Sound Familiar?

This week, after years of scrabbling for power, Boris Johnson becomes the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, and by extension, prime minister of the country. He has trod the path to power in stages. 

In recent years, he opportunistically sided with the pro-Brexit side in the 2016 referendum, a key endorsement that undermined then-Prime Minister David Cameron and helped push the “yes” vote to victory. Then he helped systematically undermine the next prime minister, Theresa May, as she tried to untangle the impossible Gordian knot of Brexit. 

Then, he wooed enough conservative members of parliament (MPs) in the Conservative Party’s byzantine leadership election process to ensure that he would become a front-runner candidate. And, finally, he convinced a majority of the party’s 160,000 members — a disproportionately white, affluent, suburban and rural electorate — to vote for him and his nationalistic vision of Britain over his opponent, the current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Johnson beat Hunt by a wide margin, winning 92,153 votes while Hunt tallied 46,656...

See also Boris Johnson Is Lazy and Will Be a Terrible Prime Minister, Say His Ex-Colleagues.

Reality check

Kevin Drum

Kevin Drum