Universal university education for all

University education is a human right. No one should ever be denied entry. If someone wishes a university education, they should just be allowed to show up, choose their courses and come to class. The university should provide that education with no questions asked. And if they pass their exams, they should be given their degrees.

I will just add, since I often do feel I am dealing with fantastically stupid people when I discuss the idiocy of open borders, that this is meant as a bit of satire, just a joke. I don’t really mean it. But Andrew Sullivan does mean it [via Instapundit]:

Take the tragic tale of Oscar Ramirez and his young daughter Valeria, the father and daughter captured in death in that heartbreaking photograph. Ramirez’s widow explained to the Washington Post why her husband wanted to move to America: He wanted “a better future for their girl.” This is an admirable goal, but it is classic economic immigration, and it would appear, based on what we know, that it has absolutely nothing to do with asylum. Here again is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services definition: “Refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.”

But somehow the courts have decided that you qualify for asylum if there is simply widespread crime or violence where you live, and Ramirez was also going to use that argument as well. A government need not persecute you; you just have to experience an unsafe environment that your government is failing to suppress. This so expands the idea of asylum, in my view, as to render it meaningless.

Courts have also expanded asylum to include domestic violence, determining that women in abusive relationships are a “particular social group” and thereby qualify. In other words, every woman on the planet who has experienced domestic abuse can now come to America and claim asylum. Also everyone on the planet who doesn’t live in a stable, orderly, low-crime society. Literally billions of human beings now have the right to asylum in America. . . .

This is in a new century when the U.S. is trying to absorb the largest wave of new immigrants in our entire history, and when the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is also near a historic peak. It is also a time when mass immigration from the developing world has destabilized liberal democracies across the West, is bringing illiberal, anti-immigration regimes to power across Europe, and was the single biggest reason why Donald Trump is president.

I’m told that, as a legal immigrant, I’m shutting the door behind me now that I’ve finally made it to citizenship. I’m not. I favor solid continuing legal immigration, but also a reduction in numbers and a new focus on skills in an economy where unskilled labor is increasingly a path to nowhere. It is not strange that legal immigrants — who have often spent years and thousands of dollars to play by the rules — might be opposed to others’ jumping the line. It is not strange that a hefty proportion of Latino legal immigrants oppose illegal immigration — they are often the most directly affected by new, illegal competition, which drives down their wages. . . .

When I’m told only white racists favor restrictionism, I note how the Mexican people are more opposed to illegal immigration than Americans: In a new poll, 61.5 percent of Mexicans oppose the entry of undocumented migrants, period; 44 percent believe that Mexico should remove any undocumented alien immediately. Are Mexicans now white supremacists too? That hostility to illegal immigration may even explain why Trump’s threat to put tariffs on Mexico if it didn’t crack down may well have worked. Since Trump’s bluster, the numbers have measurably declined — and the crackdown is popular in Mexico. I can also note that most countries outside Western Europe have strict immigration control and feel no need to apologize for it. Are the Japanese and Chinese “white supremacists”? Please. Do they want to sustain their own culture and national identity? Sure. Is that now the equivalent of the KKK?

World’s highest IQ and MQ

Washington, possibly the city with the world’s highest average IQ but also the world’s highest MQ (Moron Quotient).

The party of the KKK (100% Democrat) who had a stage full of Venezuelan-type socialists are attacking Joe Biden because he opposed Federally-funded bussing 40 years ago. Meanwhile PDT laughs in their face: front page of the NYT: “Trump and Putin share a chuckle about meddling: Warm Greetings at G20: President makes light of Russian interference in US election”.

These people are an embarrassment. But they are also disgusting and repulsive. Picture of a migrant woman and her 3-year-old daughter at the border being looked after by some agent in yesterday’s WP. She will never create a dollar of value in her life, but she and millions of others will be a continuous drain. And no one even pretends these people are seeking refuge. They are economic migrants who intend to live on welfare for the rest of their lives if they are allowed to. They will therefore vote accordingly.

Second Democrat debate live blog

This time from Washington where reading the local press is truly a hallucinatory experience. Front page, WP: “Amid squabbles, a consensus: More government activism”. If you think they think that’s a bad thing, you should read the rest of the paper. Anyway, no doubt more softballs for the ten Dems on stage tonight. From 11:00 am Melbourne time.

Begin now.

Government benefits. Will taxes go up and how will you sell that. Bernie Sanders. “Time for real change” Must have a single payer system. Education is the future. Free tuition paid for a tax on Wall Street. Will you raise taxes for the middle class. Will pay more taxes but less for health care.

Biden. We have to return dignity is returned to the middle class. We have enormous inequality. Must fix.

Sen Harris, how do we pay for this? Where was this question asked of Donald Trump. Rules are in favour of the rich. Going to provide a $500 tax credit.

Hickenlooper. We must specifically deny we are socialists. Cannot eliminate private health insurance. I’ve done this.

On and on.

Buttiegieg. Free college for low and middle class income earners. Need to raise the minimum wage to help those who didn’t go to college.

Yang: how will you give everyone billions of dollars every year. VAT and via having a mentally healthier country.
H
Q: $1000 a month and a VAT? Yang: Would increase spending power of 94% of the country.

Stawell: “Pass the torch”. A quote from Biden.

Biden: Everybody needs an education. Focus on schools in distress. Free community college. No one under $25,000 pa does not have to repay debt.

General commotion.

Bernie: Must take on the big money interests.

Sen Harris. “America does not want a food fight. They want to have food on the table. In our America no one should have to work at more than one job.

Health Care. Abolish private health insurance to have a singleton’s payer district. Who would? Sen Gillebrand and Sanders.

Buttigieg. Medicare for all who want it.

Where do we go from Obamacare – Biden asked. Tells an anecdote. Must build on Obamacare. Make sure everyone has an option. People right now.

Sanders. Want to scrap insurance. Answer: Canada does it. Aim is to do the same. How it will be done. We will have Medicare for all when everyone tells the insurance companies they have had enough of a profit-driven system.

Sen. Bennett: Families need this choice. We can have medicare for those who want it.

Sanders. We will stop the greed of the insurance companies.

Sen Harris. Tells a story about how insurance companies rob families.

All would provide health care for undocumented immigrants.

Buttigieg: This is not a hand-out. We should not have undocumented immigrants. They also pay taxes.

Biden: Must provide cover to everyone. They are contributing to the economy. We can deal with insurance companies by putting some of these insurance company execs in jail.

Move to an ad.

Migrant children are being apprehended. What would you do, Sen Harris. She will reinstate DACA. Meaningful process to assess refugee status. No locking people up. Why would some mother bring her child across America? Let them in. Will applause.

Hickenlooper. Bring them in. Reform ICE. Address the whole needs of these migrants.

Williamson: We open our hearts to the stranger.

Gillibrand: Trump has torn the moral fabric of our nation.

Decriminalisation of border.

Buttigieg: Accuses Christians of being unChristian.

Biden: We would reunite families. Trump is outrageous.

Should an undocumented migrant be deported. Biden: only if they have committed a crime. Those who see asylum, we should bring them in. Undocumented migrants should NOT be deported.

Sanders: Must look at the circumstances of why they are leaving. Need to have a meeting of Central American leaders.

Stawell and Harris. Should not deport. Harris runs on and on.

Trade. Greatest geopolitical threat. How would you deal with China.

Bennet: Russia is our greatest threat. Goes on a tirade on border security.

Yang: Russia is our greatest threat.

Buttigieg: China is a major threat. Their authoritarian system is being held up as a model.

More ads.

Race and community relations. Buttigieg: we are trying to fix the problem, until we move policing our from the systemic racism that plagues it.

Hickenlooper. Why doesn’t every city have accountability?

Sen Harris: An issue that is not being discussed honestly. But Biden is a friend of former Senators who were racists. Cannot just be an intellectual debate. [Wild applause]

Biden: I have stood up against racism. Was Obama’s VP. Supported bussing. [Kamala Harris attacks Biden directly.] Defends himself.

Sanders: We encourage diversity, but we also have to ask something else. Diversity is not enough. Must stand up to the special interests.

Gillibrand: Washington is being run by the special interests.

Will gridlock disappear if Dem Pres? Bennet: No, must also win the Senate. Need to root out corruption.

Biden: I was able to get bi-partisan agreement on various measures.

Bennet attacks Biden. Gillibrand joins in about the corruption in Washington (she’s a senator!!!).

Supreme Court and abortion. Sanders: politicians should not affect a women’s right to choose. Need to fix the courts. Plus Medicare for All gives women automatic right to abortion.

Gillibrand: Rant, rant, rant. No applause.

Climate change. Sen Harris: An existential threat to our existence. Support Green New Deal. Rant, rant, rant.

Buttigieg: Need to start adapting right away.

Hickenlooper. Share the urgency. Socialism is however not the solution. Working with the oil and gas industries. China is the worst polluter.

Biden. We drove down the price of renewables. Aims to have a 100% green automobile economy by 2030.

Sanders: We have 12 years. The future of the planet etc etc etc.

First priority? Lists of this and that.

Ads. (Thankfully. These people are insane.)

Guns. Buy-Back. Stawell – “If we can but save a single life”. “We must be a nation that loves our children more than we love our guns.”

Sanders: Need comprehensive gun reform.

Harris: Give Congress 100 days and will ban by exec order ….

Buttigieg: Worst part of being a mayor is dealing with the violence. Weapons have no place in American cities.

Biden: Have a record of bringing in gun control.

International leadership. Rant, rant, rant answers.

First international repair job? Irrelevant rubbish from each of them.

Asking Biden about foreign policy. He voted for Iraq War so how can he be trusted? Long answer – no applause.

Sanders: This and that but prevent a war with Iraq priority.

More ads.

Final 45-second case.

Stalwell: ??

Williamson: Wants to “harness love for political purposes”.

Bennett: Build a new era of ???

Hickenlooper: Must not turn towards socialism.

Gillibrand: “I will take on the fights no one else will.”

Yang: Only question is who can beat Donald Trump. It’s me.

Harris: Need to prosecute the case against PDT. She has “the 3:00 am agenda, to deal with the things that keep Americans awake at 3:00 in the morning.

Buttigieg: A new generation philosophy.

Sanders: Take on Wall Street and greedy industry.

Biden: Restore the soul of America. Restore the backbone. There is not a single thing we cannot do if we stand together.

And so it ends. Incoherent and inane. Shockingly shallow.

Live blogging the first Dem debate

On reflection: The interesting part was how the non-debate was centred on mini-responses to non-issues. Not just dull, but no substance. Superficial. None of them seemed to have any serious grip on any issue. None of them could beat PDT. Trump tweeted “boring” in the middle of the debate. Quite agree.

_______

Watching from New York in real time.

Healh care. Watching the sequence of one minute replies to questions. Slick, polished and madness end to end. Fascinating and fascile. Wild cheering for each of the most extreme statements. The more extreme the statement, the wilder the applause. Each answer seems to push each subsequent candidate farther along.

And now an ad break!

Now undocumented children held in detention. Booker begins in Spanish. Open borders – “not to criminalise desperation”. More Spanish. The more open borders types are criticising the less open borders. “should no longer be a crime to illegally cross the border.” “A path to citizenship”. “There are terrorists at Guantanamo who have better health care” than those illegal immigrants. “We cannot sacrifice our values.” “We welcome refugees into our state.”

Iran. “Need to renegotiate to get back to an Obama-type deal.” “It was a good deal for that moment.” “No war with Iran.” All seem to agree that Obama’s agreement was imperfect but “Trump needs to get back into the deal.”

Another ad.

Guns. Gun activism. Is there a role for the federal government? But first there is a technical problem from the control room so we are off to another set of ads. A very long break.

Now back to guns. Sen Warren leads off. 100s of millions of guns out there, she’s asked. “How you gonna keep us safe, ask so many children, “a national health emergency. We need to find out what will really work. We need to treat it as a serious research problem. A public health emergency.” Sen Booker: “I hear gunshots in my neighbourhood…. This is an emergency…. This is not policy; this is personal.” Julian Castro: “Worst day is worrying about your child in school…. We are getting closer to common sense gun reform.” De Blasio: “Need trauma-based care in our schools.”

Taking our guns away. Beto O’Rourke: Waffle. Klobuchar: Waffle. No one states they will ban guns. Booker: “Licence should be needed to buy a gun.” Brings in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Nomination v Mitch McConnell. De Blasio: “I have been raising a black son and therefore understands how to have a conversation with their children. Supreme Court nomination is part of this. Sen Warren: I have a plan to deal with Mitch McConnell. Waffle, waffle, waffle. Congressman Delaney: “We ned real solutions etc etc. Sen Booker: Waffle waffle.

Climate change. Jay Inslee: Last chance for an admin to do anything about it…. I will make it the top priority. Lead the world. Beto: “Must bring everyone in.” Mobilise trillions! Julian Castro: I am the only candidate with executive experience. First act, recommit to Paris. Australia mentioned in the question – one party was rejected over climate. Tim Ryan: “We are not connecting to the working people…. None responsive to the question. ?? said: Put a price on carbon and give the money back to the people.s-Am

Gay marriage. Tulsi Gabbard: “There are still people facing discrimination etc. Booker: “We don’t talk enough about trans-Americans.”

Minorities. Klubochar. Waffle. Castro: Wants equality.

Protecting citizens of other countries – genocide. Beto – yes act. Must deal with others overseas. De Blasio: “I know the cost of war.” We must have Congressional approval. Tim Ryan: The lesson I have learned is “you must stay engaged.” “These flare ups are distracting us.” Tulsi Gabbard: “We have to bring our troops home from Afghanistan.” Ryan: If the US is not engaged, the Taliban will grow. Gabbard disagrees. Ryan: We cannot withdraw from the world.

Biggest threat. Biggest applause line: “Donald Trump”. Others: China, climate change, Russia (more applause).

Mueller: Beto: If we allow Trump to get away with the involvement of a foreign country in our country, then we are lost. Impeachment now.

Prosecution Trump for crimes after leaving office. This president who is lawless should be prosecuted. But this is not the issue Americans care about. Klobuchar: need to do something.

More ads.

Closing statements – 45 seconds each.

John Delaney. Need real solutions – not impossible promises.

De Blasio. I’ve seen poverty and wants to do something about it. Wants to do to the country what he has done to New York111

???: A unified national mission.

Cong. Ryan. Heal a divided community. Homelessness, coming together. You will not be forgotten.

Tulsi Gabbard. For the people not for the rich and powerful. Clean air, water.

Julian Castro. Starts with Spanish.

Amy Klobuchar. I listen. I can beat Donald Trump (no applause). Will govern for you.

Cory Booker. I take on tough fights and have won. Need to show who we are.

Beto: For the children. Need a new approach.

Elizabeth Warren. We can make our country work for everyone.

Pointing the bone at Western Civ and not before time

David Solway on Time to Leave Western Civ Behind: Looking for a Place to Emigrate.

Clearly, Western culture should be sent to the chop shop, dismantled piece by piece, and sold off to the newcomers. They may conceivably reassemble the parts into something far superior than the civilizational vehicle we’ve been driving around in. Indeed, these “parts” may have been theirs in the first place. We have been guilty of so much in the past, of condescension as well as outright plunder. We are obviously morally obligated to cheer them on, to surrender our “white supremacy” in favor of the nobility, wisdom and cultural glory of Third World saviors and aboriginal peoples. Perhaps we should be grateful to our betters for bringing the manifold fruits of their accomplishments to our wide-open doors. Perhaps that is their real agenda, bless their souls.

None of this should be forgotten as well.

Remember all the wonderful things invented by Black Africans or Muslims or both, and then stolen by whiteys. And don’t forget that indigenous people everywhere, before the ongoing genocide and dispossession, had a deep intimate spiritual knowledge of life, Universe and everything, far more evolved than our pitiful 300-yr-old settler-colonial narrative of “science.” They have known about dark matter in the sky for 50,000 years, while white people are only starting to discover it now with our telescopes, as the Dean of Research of my ex university once told us. As for music, as another SJW academic once told me, the genius of the Aboriginal artists is that every didgeridoo is unique, has a different sound from every other, unlike our boring Western instruments that all sound the same.

Makes an absolutely incontrovertible case. At the bottom of the page there are, incomprehensibly, these words, “RELATED: SATIRE“. It’s nothing of the kind. It’s actually about time someone pointed the bone at our poisonous culture, which David has now done.

Being on the left is merely a vanity project

I am off to the first ever Heterodox Academy meeting in New York which almost overlaps with the meeting of the American History of Economics Society meeting which is also in New York. When I’m in New York I always go here, which I like even more now that I understand the entrepreneurial vision of its owner. She must be the last of her kind among the Democrats.

Chaser: New York City Landmarks Historic Bookstore The Strand Over Owner’s Objections.

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC) just wouldn’t take no for an answer. The group has conferred landmark status on the 119-year-old building at 826 Broadway, which has housed The Strand Bookstore since 1956. The owners of The Strandbought the building in the late 1990s and the third-generation owner of the store, Nancy Bass Wyden, opposed the action, telling Reason earlier this year:

The Strand is not going anywhere. There’s no need to protect it. Our family’s been a great steward of the building. Landmarking would add another component of government. You add bureaucracy, you add committees, you add people having opinions about what we should do inside the store as well as outside the store. And that does not allow me the flexibility to change with the retail book environment and to serve our customers.

Bass Wyden (who is married to Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democrat from Oregon) presented 11,000 signatures to the LPC in hopes of dissuading landmark status. Such popular support for what is generally considered New York’s best bookstore cut no mustard.

Being on the left is merely a vanity project. How what they do affects everyone else hardly matters at all, to them.

It is possible women who live in capitalist economies really do prefer socialism

Even more certain is that women who live in socialist economies prefer capitalism. It may take a year or two after the socialists have taken over, but eventually they figure it out, as do men as well. So let us begin with this: A MAJORITY of American women age 18-54 would prefer living in a socialist country to living in a capitalist country. That story was replied to here: 55% Of Women Prefer Socialism To Capitalism. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.

What is of particular interest is the list of attributes being sought in the socialist system these women are seeking to have introduced. The list is shown in descending order of approval, from 76% for the first through to 52% for the tenth.

  1. Universal healthcare (76 percent)
  2. Tuition-free education (72 percent)
  3. Living wage (68 percent)
  4. State-controlled economy (66 percent)
  5. State control and regulation of private property (61 percent)
  6. High taxes for the rich (60 percent)
  7. State-controlled media and communication (57 percent)
  8. Strong environmental regulations (56 percent)
  9. High public spending (55 percent)
  10. Government “democratizes” private businesses—that is, gives workers control over them—to the greatest extent possible (52 percent)

“State-controlled economy” pretty well defines socialism with 66 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 54 signing up for whatever it might mean in practice. These attitudes go very neatly with the 57% who seek “State-controlled media and communication”. With this as to provide the groundwork, let me continue with this: Can we risk nominating a man for president? Here is the point she is making:

Men have had their chance. Let us not risk four more years of this. After the past 230, we have been warned.

Yes, let women take over running our communities with no involvement of men where they can introduce exactly what they are looking for (see above). And following from that, let me continue with this: How Feminism Breeds Marital Resentment. I am sure it does with consequences all of their own. There is then this, where again both sides of the story are told. First this.

I’m sure this is wrong. Here is the other side.

Well, I’m not going to be around to know how it finally turns out when and if this has all played itself out. But I have to say, a complete take-over of our societies by Islam seems a more likely prospect than a society run by feminists.

Defining socialism in the modern world

Here is the original story: Socialism is losing its stigma thanks to Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as a MAJORITY of American women age 18-54 would prefer living in a socialist country to living in a capitalist country. That story was replied to here: 55% Of Women Prefer Socialism To Capitalism. Here’s Why They’re Wrong. But what is of particular interest is the list of attributes being sought in the socialist system these women are seeking to have introduced, in descending order of approval, from 76% for the first through to 52% for the tenth.

  1. Universal healthcare (76 percent)
  2. Tuition-free education (72 percent)
  3. Living wage (68 percent)
  4. State-controlled economy (66 percent)
  5. State control and regulation of private property (61 percent)
  6. High taxes for the rich (60 percent)
  7. State-controlled media and communication (57 percent)
  8. Strong environmental regulations (56 percent)
  9. High public spending (55 percent)
  10. Government “democratizes” private businesses—that is, gives workers control over them—to the greatest extent possible (52 percent)

“State-controlled economy” pretty well defines socialism with 66 percent signing up for whatever it might mean in practice. Goes very neatly with “State-controlled media and communication”. The full socialist box and dice.

If it’s not illegal to say it, it should be illegal to stop it from being said

Comes with this: ‘The Five’ song about politics hits NUMBER ONE, so Twitter BANS IT!

And let me add this from Instapundit as well. It’s the comments thread that is of particular interest.

THE NEW RULES DON’T ONLY WORK ONE WAY: The woman who screamed ‘Nazi’ at a Trump supporter has been hounded out of a job. I don’t approve of people being hounded out of jobs for what they say, or even scream. But I didn’t make the new rules, and they won’t change back to something more civilized unless they’re uncomfortable for the left as well as the right.

This is the top comment.

Going by their fulminations on Twitter, it seems some right-wingers think this is about playing the left at its own game, as right-wingers have been the targets for myriad twitch-hunts in the past. But these people are just dressing up their own lack of principle and shrill, pearl-clutching authoritarianism as tactical nous.

The author of that article needs to read a treatise on the Prisoner’s Dilemma in game theory. Then perhaps he would see that tit-for-tat is necessary to deter bad actors.

Nobody likes outrage mobs. But the left pushed outrage mobs into the mainstream, and for a long time they had that particular tactic to themselves. They also pushed the concept so far that trivial things caused outrage, or even in some cases made up things.

Outrage became a weapon, a cudgel they gleefully wielded. I contend that it’s impossible to curb their use of that weapon unless they see it used against them.

Free speech, but on any platform like Twitter or Facebook, if it’s not illegal to say it, it should be illegal to prevent it from being said.

Just do it or you won’t do it at all

Wall Street Journal op-ed:  The Dangers of Half Measures, by Sam Walker (author, The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams (2018)):

In the early summer of 1776, John Adams had grown profoundly exasperated.

King George had declared the 13 American colonies in open rebellion and sent troops to enforce his authority. A declaration of independence, and all-out war, seemed inevitable but still, holdouts in the Second Continental Congress kept clogging the docket with feckless half-measures and spineless appeasements.

“In politics, the middle way is none at all,” Adams fumed that March in a letter to an ally. “If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”

One of the hallmarks of a great leader is the ability to convince others to do something difficult under maximum duress. For Adams, America’s loudest voice for independence, this test finally arrived on July 2, 1776, when the matter was put to a vote.

More than two centuries later, on March 29, 2019, British lawmakers convened in London to vote on a different kind of high-stakes divorce proposal: The United Kingdom’s long-planned departure from the European Union.

When Prime Minister Theresa May rose that day to support her Brexit deal, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d spent any time studying the events of 1776. By the time she’d finished talking, I was fairly certain she hadn’t.

These two “exits” were vastly different, of course, but there were a few key similarities. In both cases, the will of the people was clear enough. In 1776, most colonists supported independence, or soon would, while British voters had approved Brexit in a 2016 referendum.

Political maneuvering had delayed both measures for months, and time was running short. The colonists had a war to prepare for, while the U.K. faced the prospect of expulsion from the EU with no accommodations at all.

The key difference was the outcome: The colonies opted for independence without a single dissenting vote, but Parliament rejected Mrs. May’s last-ditch Brexit proposal by a 58-vote margin. John Adams, hailed as the “Atlas” of independence, went on to become president in 1796. On May 24, with no Brexit resolution in sight, Mrs. May announced her resignation.

If there’s a leadership lesson in these two tales, it’s this: The best way to persuade people to do something hard is to present them with the hardest possible choice.

Although Adams lobbied his colleagues tirelessly, he also set limits. He didn’t cut deals to secure votes or waste time negotiating with the king. He wanted delegates to cast their votes on one question only: whether the colonists, and really all people, had a fundamental right to be governed by consent.

By framing the vote as a matter of principle, Adams boxed “the cool crowd,” as he called them, into a difficult corner. They weren’t weighing another bundle of deal points and compromises, they were ruling on the nature of government itself. …

From the moment she became prime minister in 2016, Mrs. May’s primary job, as she saw it, was to honor the Brexit referendum while negotiating the best deal possible from the EU.

Three years later, on March 29—the very date Britain had originally set for Brexit—she presented Parliament with a proposal that was starkly different from the one Adams had offered. It was, quite literally, a half-measure.

To exit the EU, Parliament had to approve two things: a negotiated withdrawal agreement laying out the practical, immediate details of a Brexit, and a political declaration that would define the U.K.’s relationship with Europe in the future.

Rather than dialing up the pressure, Mrs. May tried to make the vote less intimidating. The more-contentious political declaration, which would ultimately determine the scope and severity of Brexit, was withheld, leaving lawmakers to rule solely on the basic nuts and bolts. In other words, she postponed the tricky bit. …

Like it or not, the British public chose a difficult, treacherous road. Brexit isn’t an incremental issue, it’s existential. In a case like that, concessions and middle measures only give ditherers more pegs to hang their pet concerns on. …

[T]he most fateful moments in the life of a nation, or a company, can’t be micromanaged. When a leader arrives at the edge of a cliff, the best approach is to distill the debate down to one stark, unequivocal choice.

Are we going to jump, or not?