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Andrew Sullivan on Boris Johnson

[He] moved the party sharply left on austerity, spending on public services, tax cuts for the working poor, and a higher minimum wage. He outflanked the far right on Brexit and shamelessly echoed the left on economic policy.

This is Trumpism without Trump. A conservative future without an ineffective and polarizing nutjob at the heart of it. Johnson now has a mandate to enact this new Tory alignment, and he will be far more competent than Trump at it. Unlike Trump, he will stop E.U. mass migration, and pass a new immigration system, based on the Australian model. Unlike Trump, he will focus tax cuts on the working poor, not the decadent rich… [If Boris succeeds,] he will have found a new formula designed to kill off far-right populism, while forcing the left to regroup.

The political sweet spot in the next few years will be a combination of left economics and a celebration of the nation-state… If Johnson succeeds, he’ll have unveiled a new formula for the Western right: Make no apologies for your own country and culture; toughen immigration laws; increase public spending on the poor and on those who are “just about managing”; increase taxes on the very rich and redistribute to the poor; focus on manufacturing and new housing; ignore the woke; and fight climate change as the Tories are (or risk losing a generation of support). That’s where the GOP will have to go if they want to recover from becoming an authoritarian cult.

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Also: An interview before the election with Nimco Ali.

Margaret Soltan, December 13, 2019 2:31PM
Posted in: democracy, FGM

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2 Responses to “Andrew Sullivan on Boris Johnson”

  1. Total Says:

    Andrew Sullivan’s record of analysis and prediction is such that I’m now pretty sure exactly the opposite of the above is going to happen.

    Particularly with this — he’s long fancied himself a lapsed Conservative and so he’s always looking for a New Conservative Messiah with which to fall in love. BoJo is just the latest.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Sullivan: I think to be honest with you, I think he’s more likely to win at this point than Clinton.

    Weisberg: Really?

    May 2016

    ******************
    Not bad.

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