I am going, metaphorically, to skate on thin ice. I don’t know much about Obama’s health care legislation or Trump’s proposed but rejected reforms.
However, it seems to me that there may be a parallel between the narrow victory for Brexit and President Trump’s narrow victory to lead the United States. Here, PM May says – I don’t need to remind you, she was a Remainer – “Brexit means Brexit”. There are many Conservatives who are dragging their heels over leaving the EU. Are they right to stick to their lifetime convictions or are they trying to obstruct a decision democratically (perhaps mistakenly) taken?
In America are the Republicans turning on the elected leader of their party and country by thwarting his keystone electoral pledge of health care reform? Next question: is it more important for a politician to obey the will of the electorate or to follow their convictions? We seem to be doing the former in the UK over Brexit and the US, at least over health care, seem to be doing the latter.
I mused on this in a hot bath yesterday evening after walking across great swathes of Cambridgeshire. About seventy-five people and a lot of dogs turned out for a charity tramp on a crisp, sunny day and raised some £20,000 for the Royal Marsden Hospital cancer charity. It was great fun thanks to the generosity of the organisers and their neighbours and the amiability of their friends. My picture is of the walkers gathering in the morning. Incidentally, one of the walkers, let’s call him Harry because I have no imagination and it happens to be his name, is so blinkered in his support of Brexit that it is difficult to conduct a conversation with him. He then produced a bizarre argument about where to sit on a crowded tube – too boring to expand. Another walker, Alex, is a wine merchant and produced a Provençal rosé of exceptional pale, elegance; like an English girl’s complexion – if she lives in Donegal.
A dominant minority is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority).