Abstract
Racism and xenophobia are no longer isolated issues affecting only small portions of a society. Rather, these issues are now at the forefront of debate and have assumed a position on the frontlines of political warfare. In 2016, both the UK and the USA found themselves embroiled in bitter battle, a battle wherein the citizens themselves became their own worst enemies. The Leave/Stay campaigns in the UK and the 2016 US presidential campaign precipitated a rebirth of nationalism, reinvigorating entire populations and charming even the casual observer into political action and discourse. Yet in both cases, what began as an endeavour to serve the needs of the citizenry morphed into a battleground of derision and division. As this article reveals, the parallels between campaigns are not merely provocative they are disarming.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramson, B. and Ballabon, J. (2016) Five things standing in the way of Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House, CNBC, 13 June 2016, retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/13/five-thingsstanding-in-the-way-of-hillary-clintons-path-to-the-white-house-commentary.html.
Alarid, M. (2016) Chapter 13 Recruitment and Radicalization: The Role of Social Media and New Technology, Impunity, available at http://cco.ndu.edu/Publications/Books/Impunity/Article/780274/chapter-13-recruitment-and-radicalization-the-role-of-social-media-and-new-tech/, accessed 20 February, 2017.
American News. (2016) BREAKING: Clinton Campaign Rocked By Major Arrest – New Scandal Returns To Haunt Hillary, American News, available at http://americannews.com/breaking-clinton-campaign-rocked-by-major-arrest-new-scandal-returns-to-haunt-hillary/, accessed 3 August.
Barbiere, C. (2013) France Seeks Guarantees for National Sovereignty in Adoption of TTIP, EurActiv.com, available at https://www.euractiv.com/section/trade-society/news/france-seeks-guarantees-for-national-sovereignty-in-adoption-of-ttip/, accessed 23 February.
Britton, B. (2016) Farage to Resign as UKIP Leader In Wake of ‘Brexit’ Vote, CNN, available at http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/04/europe/farage-resign-ukip-brexit/, 24 November, 2016.
Bult, L. (2016) ‘Trump supporters embrace ‘deplorables’ label with T-shirts, signs and memes’, The New York Daily News, available at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-supporters-embrace-deplorables-label-article-1.2790097, accessed 13 October, 2016.
Champion, M. (2016) Leaving the EU Is an English Nationalism Thing, Bloomberg, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-04/brexit-is-an-english-nationalism-thing, accessed 30 October, 2016.
Chakrabortty, A. (2016) ‘After a campaign scarred by bigotry, it’s become OK to be racist in Britain’, The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/28/campaign-bigotry-racist-britain-leave-brexit, accessed 1 November, 2016.
Curtice, J. (2016a) Brexit: Behind the referendum, Centre on Constitutional Change, University of Edinburgh, available at http://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/blog/brexit-behind-referendum, accessed 10 November, 2016.
Curtice, J. (2016b). US Election 2016: The Trump-Brexit Voter Revolt, BBC, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37943072, 15 November, 2016.
Deacon, M. (2016) Hitler for Remain, Isil for Brexit… Can the EU Debate Sink Any Lower?, The Telegraph, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/17/hitler-for-remain-isil-for-brexit-can-the-eu-debate-sink-any-low/, 12 November, 2016.
Debating Europe. (2017) Arguments for and Against Britain Leaving the EU, Debating Europe, available at http://www.debatingeurope.eu/focus/arguments-britain-leaving-eu/#.WCoUGCTFn20, 1 January, 2017.
Dejevsky, M. (2016) ‘Why the rise in post-Brexit nationalism could have unexpected benefits’, The Independent, available at http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-nationalism-rise-unexpected-benefits-eu-referendum-british-culture-a7209971.html, accessed 11 November, 2016.
Economist. (2014) ‘The Eurosceptic Union: The impact of the rise of anti-establishment parties, in Europe and abroad’, The Economist May 31, 2014.
Escobar, P. (2016) Why the UK Said Bye Bye to the EU. It’s Immigration! A Vote against Corruption, Global Research, available at http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-the-uk-said-bye-bye-to-the-eu-its-immigration-a-vote-against-corruption/5532720, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Fahrenthold, D.A. (2016) ‘Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005’, Washington Post, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html, accessed 9 November, 2016.
Feffer, J. (2013) ‘Bulgaria’s Ataka Party: An unlikely blend of left and right’, Foreign Policy in Focus, available at http://fpif.org/bulgarias-ataka-party-an-unlikely-blend-of-left-and-right-2/, accessed 9 November, 2016.
Fox News. (2016) Here’s President-Elect Trump’s Plan for His First 100 Days in Office, Fox News, available at http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/11/10/donald-trump-has-contract-american-voter-plan-his-first-100-days-office, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Fox News Latino. (2016) The Hurdles Clinton and Trump Must Overcome in First Showdown, Fox News Latino, available at http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/09/24/hurdles-clinton-and-trump-must-overcome-in-first-showdown/, accessed 30 October, 2016.
Gay, R. (2016) What Happened on Election Day, The New York Times, retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/election-night-2016/the-audacity-of-hopelessness.
GlennBeck.com. (2016) Trump’s Impressive 100-day Action Plan to Make America Great Again, Glenn Beck, available at http://www.glennbeck.com/2016/11/10/trumps-impressive-100-day-action-plan-to-make-america-great-again/, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Grassegger, H. and Krogerus, M. (2017) The Data That Turned the World Upside Down, Motherboard, available at https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-our-likes-helped-trump-win, accessed 2 February, 2017.
Hallett, N. (2014) Marine Le Pen Would Win French Presidential Election if it Were Held Today, Poll Says, Breitbart, available at http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/08/01/marine-le-pen-would-win-french-presidential-election-if-it-were-held-today-poll-says/ accessed 15 July, 2015.
Holley, P. (2016) ‘KKK’s official newspaper supports Donald Trump for president’, The Washington Post, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/01/the-kkks-official-newspaper-has-endorsed-donald-trump-for-president/?utm_term=.d111955b29f5, accessed 2 February, 2017.
Hunt, A. and Wheeler, B. (2016) Brexit: All You Need to Know About the UK Leaving the EU, BBC News, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887, accessed 16 November, 2016.
Kelly, A. and Sprunt, B. (2016) Here Is What Donald Trump Wants To Do In His First 100 Days, NPR., available at http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Hunt, A. and Wheeler, B. (2017) Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU, BBC News, 23 February 2017, retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887.
Leave.EU. (2017) Leave.EU Campaign, available at http://leave.eu/, accessed 2 February, 2017.
Marshall, S. (2016) Obama Has Deported More People Than Any Other President, ABC News, available at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661, accessed 1 February, 2017.
Milligan, S. (2016) ‘No one wins’, US News and World Report, available at http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2016-02-26/the-most-hated-candidate, accessed 10 November, 2016.
Mokuolu, P. (2016) ‘I voted to leave the EU. That doesn’t make me an idiot or a xenophobe’, The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/30/voted-leave-eu-racist-idiot-intolerance-brexit, accessed 12 November, 2016.
MSNBC. (2016) Donald Trump Responds To David Duke Controversy, Morning Joe. MSNBC, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfySsRoqURw, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Nayak, N. (2016) Initial Analysis and TPs on Outcome, Email to Hillary Clinton’s senior staff, available at https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3217697/2016-11-10-Clinton-Senior-Staff-Memo-Why-We-Lost.pdf, accessed 12 November, 2016.
O’Toole, F. (2016) ‘Brexit is being driven by English nationalism. And it will end in self-rule’, The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/england-eu-referendum-brexit, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Ramswell, P.Q. (2017) Millennial Fascism: The Rising Threat from the Left and Right in Europe, Lanham: Lexington Publishers.
Reilly, K. (2016) ‘Donald Trump is proud of raising questions about Obama’s birthplace: ‘I did a good job’’, Fortune, available at http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/presidential-debate-donald-trump-birther-obama/, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Riley-Smith, B. (2016) ‘Leave or remain in the EU? The arguments for and against Brexit’, The Telegraph, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/16/leave-or-remain-in-the-eu-the-arguments-for-and-against-brexit/, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Schultz, M. and Golding, B. (2016) ‘Chelsea Clinton used foundation to help pay for wedding: Email’, The New York Post, available at http://nypost.com/2016/11/06/chelsea-clinton-used-foundation-to-help-pay-for-wedding-emails/, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Siddi, M. (2015) Rising Euroscepticism and the Dominance of National Interests, EU-28 Watch-Issue 10, Berlin: Institut für Europäische Politik, http://eu-28watch.org/issues/issue-no-10/rising-euroscepticism-and-the-dominance-of-national-interests/, accessed 7 July, 2015.
Solomon, A. (2016) ‘A perilous nationalism at Brexit’, The New Yorker, available at http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-perilous-nationalism-at-brexit, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Spiering, C. (2016) ‘Hillary Clinton’s 47% moment: Calls Trump supporters ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic’’, Breitbart, available at http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/09/hillary-clintons-47-percent-moment-calls-trump-supporters-racist-sexist-homophobic-xenophobic-islamaphobic/, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Suls, R. (2016) Educational Divide in Vote Preferences on Track to be Wider Than in Recent Elections, Pew Research Center, retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/15/educational-divide-in-vote-preferences-on-track-to-be-wider-than-in-recent-elections/, accessed 20 February, 2017.
Wilkinson, M. (2016) ‘Fragile Tory truce over EU referendum shattered as David Cameron savages Boris Johnson’, The Telegraph, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12167851/eu-referendum-david-cameron-faces-mps-after-boris-johnson-backs-brexit-live.html, accessed 12 November, 2016.
Williams, J. (2016) ‘EU referendum: What are the main arguments for and against leaving the European Union?’, Manchester Evening News, available at http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/eu-referendum-issues-for-against-11020375, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Wintour, P. and Watt, N. (2014) ‘Ukip wins European elections with ease to set off political earthquake’, The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/26/ukip-european-elections-political-earthquake, accessed 12 August, 2015.
Worland, J. (2016) Donald Trump Calls Himself ‘Mr Brexit’, Time Magazine, available at http://time.com/4457246/donald-trump-brexit-tweet/, accessed 15 November, 2016.
Wright, O. (2016) ‘Nigel Farage accused of deploying Nazi-style propaganda as Remain crash poster unveiling with rival vans’, The Independent, available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-brexit-poster-vans-eu-referendum-london-remain-breaking-point-a7085396.html, accessed 20 February, 2017.
Zurcher, A. (2016) Hillary Clinton Email S-What’s It All About, BBC News, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31806907, accessed 18 November, 2016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ramswell, P.Q. derision, division–decision: parallels between Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election. Eur Polit Sci 16, 217–232 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0112-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0112-0