Greenwald calls-out the dominant Brexit narrative

[TubbersUK]

90. The Brexit vote wasn't monolithic though

Much of it was drawn from natural Tory voters - predominantly older, perhaps relatively affluent Little Englanders with a longstanding dislike of immigration and pretty much anything that isn't British. Often too polite (or devious) to be overtly racist, but getting a kick out of the winking racism their political heroes on the right serve up from time to time. Many tolerate the more 'one nation' Tories but idolize the Europhobes and ideologues in the Party. They don't resent the establishment, they resent anything or anybody that isn't establishment enough (British establishment that is). The Tories got 11,000,000 mill votes in 2015. Brexit was made for many of them.

Then there was the natural UKIP vote - they got 4,000,000 votes in last years general election i think, more than the Liberal Democrat party - and UKIP only really targeted 25 out of a total of 650 seats in that election. They had national scope in the referendum of course so there could well have been additional pent up demand for their brand of petty fascism.

In terms of the natural Labour supporters who voted Brexit, UKIP and their noxious cronies really did pull out all the stops to make sure that their pain and frustration was minted into resentment of immigration and the EU. Of course it didn't work with everyone, but it worked with a lot. I saw the impact among my own family and friends and encountered many, many Brexit voters who, rather than pointing the finger at successive Conservative and Blairite governments for their economic distress, blamed it on immigration and that fictitious £350 million a week we were paying into EU coffers.