Polling in Great Britain clearly predicted the country would vote to remain in the European Union. Apparently polling in England is about as good as English dentistry.
The Brits shocked the world and riled financial markets when they voted to exit the EU. Citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world grew tired of having to pay for layabout countries like Greece.
Brits also didn't like the fact that 65 percent of regulations governing them come out of the bureaucratic morass in Brussels. Lastly, they did not like unchecked immigration imposed upon them by this power-hungry group whose incompetency grows with its size. Sound familiar?
When you are a strong financial country like Great Britain, being in the EU is like having your unemployed brother-in-law living in your basement for years, barking orders at you, and then telling you he wants to take a few unvetted immigrants into your house. Then he calls you a jerk when you say "No."
Ron HartView other columns by Ron Hart
Americans didn't know what Brexit was; many thought it was a new Hardee's drive-thru meal promotion after breakfast but before brunch. We, too, were astonished when conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned after miscalculating the outcome of this vote. Americans cannot fathom the concept of an elected official making a huge error in judgment and then actually stepping down. When our politicians make mistakes, they never step down - they double down.
This was a U.K. government miscalculation. Americans would still be subjects of Great Britain had the British not made some bad government decisions, like dressing their soldiers in bright red uniforms to fight us in the forests.
EU government elites, who like their limos paid for with tax dollars, made the case for Great Britain to "remain" by embarking on a "Project Fear," threatening Brits with terrible consequences if they voted to leave the EU.
Fearful of mutiny here in the U.S., Obama joined the establishment threats to British voters in an April speech. He cajoled and then threatened Great Britain, saying if the people did this they would have to go to "the back of the queue" for trade deals with the U.S. And with the way Obama runs government, he knows how to create queues: Obamacare, the VA, TSA, etc.
I explain it this way: The government elites are the pimps and we taxpayers are their hookers. When a hooker threatens to leave a pimp, there is always a public "beat down" of her. It keeps the other hookers in line and the money flowing upward, and it sends a message to anyone contemplating leaving the pimp. It's the same thing the media do here with any upstart candidate who espouses freedom and stands against a growing government. We saw it from U.S. federal agencies during the sequester or after any hint we might cut their budget.
There is only so much high-handed incompetence that people will endure. With the seemingly endless immigration of Muslim workers, blue-collar Brits rebelled. They also worried about their security and the world order of the West. We are as divided as ever on issues of terrorists, etc.
Now, Great Britain will slow immigration forced upon it by the EU. Victims of violence, oppression, corrupt dictatorial government regimes and weak economies fraught with bloodshed won't be as numerous. If they want more of these folks, they can just increase the number of direct flights from Chicago to Heathrow.
The Brits are now officially ballsier than us. They initiated a no-fly zone over Libya. Obama and France promised to help by providing refreshments. They also were quicker than we were to make gay marriage legal, allowing Prince Charles' wife, Camilla, the freedom to stop wearing dresses and Elton John the right to do so.
The power-hungry, incompetent, burgeoning, central command-and-control government angered Brits. The EU became a coalition of the unwilling whose grumblings were ignored. This is not a surprise. Subjugating oneself to others is not the nature of most human beings.
The vote in the U.K. was about freedom, liberty, self-determination and free markets. Soon the U.S. will celebrate our 240th year of independence from Great Britain - and our seventh year of dependency on our federal government.
Contact Ron Hart at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.