Atlantic Council Frets, Establishment Efforts To Oust Trump and Boris Johnson ‘May End in Tears’

Sept. 29, 2019 (EIRNS)—The liberal establishment is relying heavily on their tried and tested (and failed) method of “shock and awe” to try to oust President Donald Trump from the White House, but some more sober establishment voices are warning that the whole gambit may backfire. The Hill today published an op-ed by two Atlantic Council authors, Mathew Burrows (director of the Foresight, Strategy and Risks Initiative at the Atlantic Council) and Julian Mueller-Kaler (a non-resident fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and works at the Atlantic Council’s Foresight, Strategy and Risks Initiative), under the headline: “Why Trying To Impeach Trump and Oust Johnson May End In Tears,” and instead propose a different strategy “to combat the disease of populism.”

They state their dislike of both Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but write: “But to win the argument and strip Trump of his powers, Democrats will have to do more than pass impeachment legislation. Their strategy is a dangerous all-or-nothing approach and might well end in tears. If removing the President from his office fails, Democrats will hand Trump even more ammunition to establish his outsider narrative and inflame his populist base.”

The authors continue: “What is true for the United States also applies to Britain: Many celebrated the paralysis of Johnson’s government as the country’s Supreme Court made history earlier this week. But polling shows that the decision might prove to be a Pyrrhic victory, given the outrage that it has caused among hard-core Brexiteers and Johnson’s exploitation of the populist narrative that leaving the European Union is a battle between Parliament and the people.... Just like Trump, Johnson has been a mastermind in playing on the deep-rooted resentments of those feeling left behind and making patriots out of those who battle the ‘corrupt system.’ ”

They warn that “it may be too late for second thoughts,” however, and that “Just as former President Clinton largely turned the tables on his accusers in the 1990s, Trump can show his populist base how persecuted he is by the ‘deep state.’ ”

They urge a different approach:

“At some point, the establishment’s need to take responsibility for their past failures and draw respective lessons from them. Populist supporters are neither Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables’ nor an exclusive club of homophobic racists. They are rather disillusioned victims of economic disruptions that are beyond their control. If mainstream politicians are to combat the disease of populism, they need to take away the reasons for public frustration and widespread disappointment.”