Vote Leave supporters walk along a street in central London, Friday, June 24, 2016. Britain entered uncharted waters Friday after the country voted to leave the European Union, according to a projection by all main U.K. broadcasters. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
The smarty-pants set never ceases to amaze. Their self-avowed brilliance notwithstanding, the global elite didn’t have a clue that the Brexit vote would pass.
Their fury is as much about being embarrassed as being on the losing side of the historic divorce.
Their shock recalls an old story about the newspaper astrologist who is gobsmacked when she gets fired. Her boss said she should have seen it coming.
So it is with the educated elite. If they know everything they claim to know about human nature and how the world works, why didn’t they understand the yearning among their countrymen for secure borders and true sovereignty?
And why did the establishment not see there would be inevitable consequences for a rule by experts that was delivering half of what it promised, and at twice the price?
The short answer is that the cloistered halls of government are too often immune to the real world. Those walls keep the outsiders out and the insiders oblivious.
It’s an old story, and as new as the 2016 political tumult in America.
It’s called democracy, and it’s the greatest idea ever devised for securing individual liberty and reminding the elite on both sides of the Atlantic that they may act only with the consent of the governed.
To continue reading Michael Goodwin’s column in the New York Post, click here.
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