History teaches us that when the British Left tries to influence American politics, it goes wrong. Freddy Gray has more in the Telegraph.
The good news keeps rolling in for Donald J Trump. The polls are tightening in his favour, the betting markets suggest he’s winning, and Kamala Harris’s ongoing “media blitz” has turned into an exercise in self-immolation.
Best of all, perhaps, the British Labour Party has decided to send almost 100 of its young activists across the pond to canvas for Kamala in the crucial swing states of Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
It’s hard to think of anything more likely to put off American voters than a group of Left-wing limeys showing up, uninvited, in order to lecture the locals about the perils of authoritarianism.
Imagine the scene at the barn doors of Beaver County, Pennsylvania when Marcus and Indy, from Bethnal Green, come a’ knockin:
“Waddaya want?”
“Hey, yah, so we’re from the international Progressive Alliance and I’m here to tell you that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.”
“Suzanne, git ma AR-15…”
Team Trump is furious at Labour’s meddling. “Bloody outrageous,” says Sebastian Gorka, the burly former assistant to the president. “This is illegal,” says Elon Musk, Trump’s richest fan. “Direct election interference… and particularly stupid if Trump wins,” adds Nigel Farage.
That’s true to a point. If a different empowered foreign party – Viktor Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary, for instance – were to attempt to sway the election in favour of Trump, a huge international outcry would erupt, followed by a legal clampdown. But when the centre-Left does election interference, apparently it doesn’t count. The hypocrisy stinks. Donald Trump’s opponents are so convinced that they are “defending democracy” that they are more than willing to break all the usual democratic rules and conventions.
And it is, of course, dim-witted of Labour to make such a blatant bet on Team Harris at the very moment when Trump seems to be gaining the upper hand. But then David Lammy, a man who once called Trump “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser” is our Foreign Secretary, so that’s hardly a surprise.
In the run up the British general election, when Joe Biden was struggling across the pond, Lammy sensibly endeavoured to build bridges with the Trump campaign. But then, when “Kamalamania” took hold over the summer, Labour returned eagerly to its default position of backing the Democrats at all costs. Several Labour MPs attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to pay homage to Harris and offer tips on progressive messaging in 2024.
That already feels an age away now, however. Nobody seriously thinks of Starmer’s Labour as a model for success any more. So Elon, Nigel et al can’t really be too concerned about the ability of a bunch of Labour kids to win hearts and minds in Nevada, say, or North Carolina. If it were legal, in fact, Musk should be offering to cover their travel expenses.
History teaches us that when the British left tries to influence American politics, it goes wrong. Let’s not forget “the Guardian Effect” in the presidential election of 2004. Britain’s leading Left-wing newspaper was so concerned about the re-election of George W Bush that it began a “pen pal” campaign, encouraging its readers to write to the wavering residents of Clark County in the key battleground state of Ohio. But the people of Clark County were not won over, to put it mildly. “Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to not vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies,” read one reply. “If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In Spectator World, Andrew Sullivan wonders why the Presidential election is so agonisingly close.
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Obama’s intervention on Brexit did not help the remain campaign, Labour will not help Kamala.
Could Putin send 100 of his supporters to the USA to campaign for The Donald?
How about President Xi Jinping – who could sent 100,000 in the blink of an eye.
Would the 100 from the British national socialist party be considered lawful election interference but Putin’s 100 and Xi’s 100,000 illegal interference?
I have read that reimbursement of expenses over $1000 would be illegal. I do t think it matters where the reimbursement comes from.
Indeed if funds for this come from anywhere other than the USA or the individual it could amount to illegal foreign donations to a candidate.
I wonder if Labour has yet realised that in the USA an investigation will not be defeated by appointing a dodgy KC and stretching it out over many years (as in the UK).
Especially with Trump in the White House and Republicans in State Houses there will be a full accounting.
How delicious it would be to see Labour activists and donors called to the USA facing potentially ruinous fines or even imprisonment.
I think I read that even if the individuals fund their trips themselves, with no reimbursement, they will be seen as foreign nationals making ‘donations’ to the Harris campaign – and there are strict limits on how much of that is allowed.
I’m sure that most of the activists will be funded/reimbursed by someone/something. It’ll be interesting if a Trump administration investigates the money trail.
They were going to be housed for free by the Democrats. How many days free room and board before you break the limit and go to jail?
I think I can simplify all this a bit.
There is only one type of election interference and that is Russian election interference.
Russian election interference can be said to have taken place when an election produces the “wrong” result. Like a Leave vote in a Brexit referendum, or a Trump victory in an American presidential election.
There is no other type of election interference. Anything else that may seem to be interference or meddling is just part of the normal democratic process.
Well… we have to put up with the crape the Yanks send over here like workery, BLM, so its only fair we should send them some of our crape in return.
If the sight and sound of Toolmaker’s Son Starmer, Dumbo Lammy, Thieves Reeves and Slapper Rayner does not put you off leftism, then you are beyond hope…
And then there is Kamala’s cackle…
To be honest, this is to be welcomed. The kinds of “activists” that will be sent over will be all too familiar: blue-haired, student politik, hopelessly naive, whining, entitled brats that we have seen lying down in roads and screeching about “the faaaaah right”.
Let them help to force what’s left of Kalamity’s campaign below the water.
Obama said something rather chilling recently. He was confronted with a question regarding Trump’s lead in the polls and he said that there is still time left. One wonders for what exactly. Only three weeks left in terms of campaigning which is nothing at all given that Harris is beyone imbecilic and makes Liz Truss look like a genius. I don’t think that if Trump were to win the election that there would be a transfer of power. The Democrats hav already admitted that they will not allow it. I expect there will be all sorts of nasty October surprises in the next eleven days.
Agree – I was talking about this with a friend the other day. If DT wins, which looks increasingly likely, the left will not go down quietly. There will be unrest that will make the BLM/Antifa riots look like a picnic, and with the counter action that will surely result the US could well erupt into full-blown civil war.
Gotta love how they claim Trump is a ‘threat to Democracy’ but it’s the Dems who seem happy to throw democracy aside. Yes, his backers did Jan 6th, but if you watch the videos, once inside the Capitol they were a little bemused, very calm walking around the building, didn’t break anything, and left just as calmly. They didn’t expect to be allowed in. They enjoyed getting a look inside the corridors of power, but didn’t spray paint or smash anything or do anything much, really. Trump didn’t tell them to do that, either. Express themselves, yes, but not that. That was on them. Meanwhile, the Dems extended the statute of limitations to engage in lawfare to try and bankrupt Trump, installed an unelected candidate after backing one who’s been mentally deficient for years (and we could all see it!), are getting edits of interviews to lie to the population, have called for people to remove Trump resulting in two a$$asination attempts and generally shown utter disdain for ‘democracy’. Personally, I can’t stand Trump and I’d have been happier if the caucus had chosen Ramaswamy, but I don’t think the Americans are ready for someone who not only looks foreign but has a foreign name. The left’s distaste for democracy when it doesn’t go their way is becoming more and more blatant every day.
The Deep State will stop at nothing to get Harris elected.