the DoBo project - a scheme to spark global mayhem spearheaded by Donald and Boris
Boris and Donald: two leaders afraid to do the hard work of running a country
After years of feigned effort, neither of the so-called populist powers can deliver on any of their promises
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/boris-and-donald-two-leaders-afraid-to-do-the-hard-work-of-running-a-country?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTA5MDY%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
They rose together and now they are falling together.
For three long years, the DoBo project – a scheme to spark global mayhem spearheaded by Donald and Boris, with a few critical assists from Vladimir – has afflicted most of our cultural, political and economic norms.
At the moment of their initial triumph, we could only watch in shock and awe as they undermined some of the world’s greatest diplomatic, military and commercial alliances. Not to mention any sense of social cohesion, right or wrong, day or night.
Who can forget that high-water mark when the new president-elect gave his first British “interview” to one Michael Gove, the past and future Brexiter?
As he put it, so weirdly, in the third person: “Trump said Brexit is going to happen and it happened. Everybody thought I was crazy.”
They still do, Mr President. Especially when they remember your promise, in the same interview, of a quick trade deal with the UK that was “good for both sides”. It made about as much sense as your white nationalist rant about the EU forcing refugees on to a once-proud Britain.
Back in 2016, the only way to explain the surprising success of the so-called populists was to assume that all assumptions were wrong: this was a global revolution that we somehow ignored until it was too late. Backed by the dark forces of digital disinformation and social media targeting, the project was surely unstoppable.
Until now. In this fourth year of our collective lunacy, the DoBos have facepalmed their way into the brick wall of reality. It’s only surprising that it took them so long.
You can fool some of the people all of the time. But you can’t really call yourself populist when a rump of hardcore nationalists is all you’ve got left.
After three years of what passes for effort, Boris can’t deliver his beloved Brexit and Donald can’t build his wacky wall. Boris can’t force Europe into more concessions and Donald can’t force Mexico to pay.
Boris lost his conservative majority in parliament while Donald lost the Republican majority in the House. It turns out both of them are better at finding imaginary enemies at home than finding new friends overseas. And no, the love letters from Kim Jong-un don’t count.
“He’s a friend of mine and he’s going at it, there’s no question about it,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “Boris knows how to win. Don’t worry about him.”
Of course Trump was speaking at almost the precise moment when his buddy was losing a House of Commons vote to stop his no-deal Brexit. If Boris knows how to win, this would be a great time to show a few of his winning ways.
This moment of reckoning is forcing us all to reassess our initial analysis of the far-right nationalism we once preferred to call populism. Boris has a 31% positive rating in the UK, while Donald can only scrape together 39% popularity across the pond. Small wonder that Trump is trailing against all the leading Democrats in national head-to-head polling in recent weeks.
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