So... What exactly is the WA GOP proposing? That Washington secede from the United States? That the United States exit NATO?

What?

What? This wasn't a vote on kicking out all the brown people?

I think what the WA state GOP probably meant was that Britain did the right thing by leaving the EU, and that the US will do the right thing by electing Trump. It's just that they're not good at expressing themselves, being comprised of halfwits with inherited wealth and rubes who don't know any better.

Something tells me that when you go to their office the waiting room has nothing but old magazines about golfing. And there's probably a picture book of Reagan, with all the pages stuck together.

@1: they're predicting xenophobia and know-nothing populism will win in November. that our country will be "taken back", and made white again.

I think if you don't live in Britain and decide to tweet about this you're in the running for dumbest tweet in reaction to Brexit.

Trump is running for President on promises of a) he knows what he's talking about and how things, like business and the economy work, and that b) he's going to work for American interests like no one has ever worked for them before.

And here, the dumb fucking schmuck is celebrating an economic maelstrom that's going to hurt ordinary people in the United States, who are going to lose jobs, see lower income, and in those cases where people have invested for their retirement, lose money. Why? Because his fucking golf course might get some international customers attracted to Scotland because of its relatively cheap prices. Of course, he forgets that a world-wide recession is going to hurt his potential customers. This man has zero understanding of economics: personal, business, national, or international. If he can't fuck money out of someone for his own benefit, it's nothing he's capable of comprehending. He can't even sustain his own enterprises, which is why he's always starting new ones. I suspect we'll find out that Trump is his own Ponzi scheme and has been skating pretty close to the edge. If he's borrowed money in dollars to build that Scottish golf course, it's probably bankrupt now, with the cost of that capital suddenly 10% higher than the numbers he counted on.

Please, Lord, fuck him before he fucks us.

@5: I'm sure he's walled himself off from the consequences of that golf course failing - and will deny it plausibly until the heat death of the universe.

he'll take his branding fees regardless.

Of course Dan Savage won't discuss Trump trying to outflank Clinton from the left on "free trade" while Obama readies himself to push TPP through during the lame-duck session (and Clinton twiddles her thumbs until there is nothing she can do about it). Dan Savage much prefers to dismiss Trump as "dumb" when much of the evidence points to the contrary

I'm British. My relatives all still live back there (and they all voted "leave"). I'm rolling my eyes at all the American punditry about why Brits voted "leave". Also, a nation that declared independence itself in 1776 is standing in a glass house as far as I'm concerned.

@8 So what is their reasoning for leaving? Real question, not snarking.

Are you guys seriously just going to pretend that the WA GOP tweet was actually suggesting the US leave the EU? Or are you really that dumb?

They clearly just meant that America will soon "right" their own ship (presumably by electing Trump and a rise in nationalism).

I don't give a fig about the WA GOP, but when you call someone dumb because you did not even understand their simple statement, it says a lot more about you than it does about them.

In regards to Brexit, it sure seems like a bad idea, but the people of the nation have the right to cast votes for the future of that nation and be as independent as they wish. Fuck you if you think otherwise.

@9: I obviously can not speak for any one voter, but the most popular reasons seem to be simple aggravation about having to deal with the EU's regulations/"taxes," and the EU's borderless approach to outside immigration that many English feel may destroy their national heritage and cultural makeup of their nation. It is true that the demographics of England are changing extremely quickly, and this is causing a "culture shock" issue, especially in London.

The UK has always been lukewarm on the EU, they never did adopt the Euro, for example.

What happens when you mix vodka and a smartphone?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…

@9 Some of the commentary I'm listening to on the BBC seems to be suggesting a) that it's partially a "fuck you" to Cameron's government and its austerity policies, and b) worries about immigration. They want to be able to "control our own borders." Of course, this fucks over a couple million Brit ex-pats, particularly retirees, who live in the EU, who are going to lose reciprocal benefits, like healthcare. Now the EU gets to "control their borders" against the Brits.

Apparently, this is entirely a self-inflicted wound, too. It was Cameron's brilliant idea to hold the referendum to gain some sort of political leverage for their upcoming Parliamentary elections. There was no way for anyone to force the election otherwise. Even more brilliantly, they had no "plan B," what to do if they lost.

This is a colossal fuck-up, one for the history books.

Here's something nice about all this-- http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016….

@11, @13 Thanks for the input, but I'm curious as to what @originalcinner's relatives have to say. Definitely a colossal fuck-up.

@7- "Dan Savage much prefers to dismiss Trump as "dumb" when much of the evidence points to the contrary."

Sadly the evidence points pretty firmly to Trump being dumb. His "position" on trade agreements (all Trump positions are in quotes, because he will simply deny having held it later if convenient or he spaced on what he said before) might sort-of align with the Left, but it's not because of some sophisticated reasoning. He just knows he's got the cushion of wealth to endure whatever and nativist anger serves his power craving. For now.

Leaving the EU is a great victory for British libertarians and good people around the world who put the individual over the state and their homeland over the "new world order".

Next up is to get rid of the UN.

@9 - Yes, the people of a nation have the right to cast votes for their future... Unfortunately, the over-50 set (with ~25 years of future left to live out), managed the cast votes for a future that the under-50 set overwhelmingly don't want, but will now have to suffer for the rest of their lives. [graph of Brexit vote by age]

In other, this comment here is a pretty decent analysis of the #Brexit / #Drumpf similarities --- i.e. legitimate & frustrated angst given only a shitty, terrible tool to express it with.

Yes, Clinton means more of the neoliberal same, something I personally am not happy about; but Drumpf is not the correct answer, that reality will be so, so much worse.

@17 - "British Lose Right To Claim American's A…"

..at least until November.

@18 - Way to miss the point entirely!

@19: Did I miss some part of civics class where older people's votes' don't count, or should not count?

At what age do you believe people should lose their ability to vote or self-govern?

Your link is broken, but I am aware of the breakdown. About 30% of these youths did vote to leave as well, you know. 30% is not an insignificant percentage. Should their votes not count as well since they voted with those stupid olds?

@18 The old world order was forever at war, including two devastating World Wars. (The next one may well be nuclear.) But, two generations after a serious war, people tend to forget, which is what seems to be happening. Europe without Russia (which Google says is "approximately" 49 countries) is basically the same size as the first 48 states of the US. Can you imagine if every one of our states was a completely separate country? It's not a formula for long-term peace.

One of the reason older, uneducated working people voted to Leave was because they were promised prosperity and pride. I'm not sure they're that committed to theoretical libertarian ideals. If there isn't a tangible improvement in their lives and economic status, they won't be pleased.

@22

There's nothing in @19 that even comes close to what you claim.

As I understand it the vote was advisory and Parliament will have to do something, or maybe it will do nothing, depending on the temperature of the populace over the next year.
But my bet is that nobody's going anywhere.

@25 This is Parliament we're talking about, not the U.S. House. It would be unprecedented and nearly unthinkable for them to fuck over the voting public like that. They can stall for awhile, which is what they seem to be telegraphing that they're going to do, while they take the national temperature and/or wait for some sign that there's an honorable way to back down that won't bring out the torches and pitchforks, but I wouldn't count on anything turning up short of civil unrest, a fallen government, and a new Parliament. And maybe not even then.

trump just keeps finding those banana peels.
And Wales and Nth Ireland wanting to stay in too. England might find itself the little country it really is. Whoops. Idiots.
Why couldn't they fight to renegotiate how they were in the EU rather than leave altogether.

This is probably only the beginning of the EU break up. I imagine that this will give encouragement to Catalonians and Basques of Spain to go their own separate ways as well as Greece and perhaps Italy and other members who have not enjoyed any real economic prosperity. I think there will have to be a significant restructure of the EU in order for it to survive.

(graph repost), hopefully with unbroken link...[graph of Brexit vote by age]

...and just for extra fun info: Regional breakdown of Brexit vote

@22 - Golly, did I say some people's votes shouldn't count? I don't seem to remember that.
I'm just pointing out that older folks fucked the younger folks' future well 'ard! I wouldn't want my future to be curtailed by a bunch of people who have very little future left in them.
Is that fair?
How would you like it if suddenly, --based on one simple-majority vote--, your driver's license was no longer valid in the 49 other states, and you now had to apply for a visa and work permit just to take a job in NYC, or PDX, or DTW, or wherever you don't currently live? That suddenly you couldn't simply drive across state lines like before, but had to undergo a full customs inspection every time?
So much for autonomy...
What of the 3million British nationals already living & working in the EU? "Oh sorry! You have to quit your job and move back to bloody old England now! With even less future than before! Fuck you!"

Perhaps the proper route is to not have simple-majority votes on such critical questions. I mean seriously, 51.5%-49.5% is pretty close to a total stalemate. Hardly decisive.

Look, I'm no fan of trans-national corporations playing countries off one another for a trickle of taxes, or for currency-warfare waged by the IMF impoverishing a population for the profit of faceless speculators in business suits, hell no. But the answer isn't "walls-up restrictive nationalism" and xenophobic violence.

Reducing population movement in the face of the effortless global movements of capital is going to make things worse.

@29: Comparing the states of the United States with the country participants of the EU is absurd. Every nation is sovereign. States within a nation are not.

@16 Trump being an uneducated buffoon isn't mutually exclusive with his having the know how to con many people including on trade. Underestimating demagogues like happened with Brexit is not exactly the hallmark of being smart.

They mean "Take America Back... to the 1950s".

Why would Greece leave the EU?
No. England is going to get a shake up. Not a completely bad thing. It's class society is abhorrent. Long live the Queen.

Europe will watch how England goes, before also throwing away their memberships, one hopes.
No more weekend trips to Paris.

@30 Tell that to Texas.

@26
MPs like to get re-elected
That's their major role in life
If popular sentiment shifts - and it doesn't have to be much - MPs will shift their votes and especially if EU bureaucracy willing to compromise
We'll see

If it's because of immigration the skin heads won, then they'll be happy to hear the Aussies and Kiwis might head out. If you've going to live in an isolated western country, there's more room, less rain, down here.

That Washington GOP tweet is not dumb, actually. It makes perfect sense. It is a not-so-subtly coded message that it is now 'Merica's turn to kick out the colored-type immigrants.

I still wish Scotland had left before Andy Murray won Wimbledon.

Those may have been among the dumber tweets, but they were far from being the dumbest things said.

I think my award would have to go to Nigel Fucking Farage, the person who kicked off this whole self-destruction, in his "Victory Speech"

"And today honesty, decency and belief in nation, I think now is going to win. And we will have done it without having to fight, without a single bullet being fired, we'd have done it by damned hard work on the ground."

Yeah, Nigel. Apart from the bullets fired to kill Jo Cox.

What an absolute shit.

I don't mean to be rude but this decision by UK will massively affect the rest of the world, so for goodness sakes, we in the us are paying attention to one of oldest allies and the grandfather of our Constitution (magna carta) is doing. I mean usually we get slammed for ignoring the rest of the world! That means we occasionally speculate and make moronic comments... which ahum happens the other way too.

As for Trump, I think he is pretty darn smart. He has hit the populace anger of this country with acumen. That does not mean his business decisions are equally smart.

@15, I can't speak to the motivations of originalcinner's relatives for voting Leave, but I also have relatives in the UK that voted this way, and not for any concern over immigration. Britain was being outvoted more often than any other EU country when it came to budget and foreign policy; it seemed to many people that the $ was going out (along with all the other restrictions required by EU membership), and British interests were not being taken seriously. For example, being an island nation, Britain is far more affected by EU common fisheries policies than most EU nations, but real and costly concerns are ignored. Lots of $ is being spent in ways the British citizens don't want to fund (the "travelling circus") being a prime example. Ironically, the English were upset about being treated this way by the EU, when it is quite comparable to the way Scotland and Northern Ireland have been treated by England. (And I have Scottish relatives who do want to stay in the EU, but are not unhappy that this vote will give them another shot at doing so as an independent nation, and that we might also see a unified Ireland.)

@11 " It is true that the demographics of England are changing extremely quickly, and this is causing a "culture shock" issue, especially in London. "
Yeah... except that London voted 60% remain and 40% leave.... Those who fears immigration come from rural areas and a lot of them never crossed UK borders. Well, it also seems that the region who voted for Brexit the most are also region which received a lot of EU financial aids. Good luck to them

Not an example of Dan at his finest.

Scotland, yes, voted to remain in the EU. As such, the logic and morality of Scottish independence being given another vote in relatively short order. Thus, Scottish nationalists have reason to cheer Brexit. Independence from the UK while remaining in the EU sounds like a winning combination electorally now, so there is a logic to Scotland being pleased overall.

The US, yes, is not in a position to emulate the Brits in departing the EU. Duh. I think one can fairly interpret the Washington GOP's tweet to refer to populist nationalism and nativism winning in Britain representing an endorsement of much of Donald Trump's platform, at least philosophically and rhetorically.

C'mon, Dan. Being willfully obtuse, or playing painful 'gotcha' games, like implying the Washington GOP wants the US to withdraw from the European Union, are both styles of argument that are beneath you.

Please see some of the UK's responses to his crappy tweet here: http://fusion.net/story/318640/delete-yo…

Iceland and the "Panama Papers". Iceland dealt with it and didn't run from the E.U... Iceland's first lady is Canadian... http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iceland-s-f…... "Feel the Bern"!

We've been through this before... "War Against the Weak", Edwin Black.

The Washington tweet makes sense. "Britain has swung all the way to the right." Yes it has.

JonnoN @2: The UK wants to kick out the Polish people, and they're white.

Haley @43: No one voted Remain because of that. Though it's possible some voted Remain because they'd rather have white immigrants from Europe than brown ones from elsewhere. My faith in humanity is shattered to the point where I'd believe that.

Lava @27: Wales voted to leave. And right after that, whoops, they realised how much EU subsidy they are losing and assume England will cover it. The English and Welsh really just did the easy work of dismantling both the "United" Kingdom and "Great" Britain, and rendering the pound worthless. GREAT JOB CHAPS. En-ger-land!

At least, hopefully, this vote will make it clear to Americans that choosing the two-fingers-up-to-the-establishment option is probably a terrible idea in practice.