Final example, which was probably the most devastating of all, was when I ran to be prime minister against Boris Johnson. I imagined that whatever else the British would do, they would not vote for Boris Johnson, this kind of extraordinary buffoonish character who was essentially a television celebrity and a joke. My whole view of Britain as a conservative was: In the end, the British people are pretty sensible. They’re pretty thoughtful, pretty moderate. They might put up with this guy becoming mayor of London as a joke, but they’re definitely not going to vote for him to be prime minister. He’s not suitable. He’s not a serious person.
Then I suddenly saw the whole swing of public opinion in his direction, and of course, that was devastating for me. It was devastating for me, obviously, personally because he beat me to become prime minister. But second, it was devastating for me as a party member because I thought, “How on earth can this party possibly go by this person?” Most important of all, devastating for me as a citizen of Britain and as a democrat to think, “How on earth did my nation, my voting system end up with somebody who’s so manifestly unsuitable?”
French: You used the word “devastating,” which is a word that tracks with me in a number of ways, including in all of the arenas that you just mentioned. But there’s one that I also think is in play in the United States, and I want to ask you if it’s in play in Britain as well. The movement of the Republican Party from a Reagan, more libertarian-inflected ideology toward this very angry populism is devastating for me in a personal way. In this sense that it wasn’t as if the Republican Party just switched out its voters. The vast bulk of the people who were for Reagan conservatism then ended up being for Donald Trump populism and then enforced that with rigorous social sanction against dissent. Vigorous social sanctions, where if you had disagreements, you were a traitor. You began to see people pulling into populism just to preserve their social connections, their community, for lack of a better term.
Was that a phenomenon in Britain as well?
Stewart: Absolutely. It continues to be a phenomenon. I am perceived as a traitor. That’s been a very central part, particularly of the social media discourse. But it’s more than that. You end up with a range of right-wing media, ranging from podcasts to television stations, that characterize me as representing everything that is wrong with the global elite. That there are two boxes that people operate in. There are the voters for Donald Trump or the voters for Boris Johnson, and they represent “real” people. And then there’s another category, which is the global elite, the establishment.
And as soon as I moved across, I became all those things: I became a traitor. I became an elitist. I became completely out of touch. I’m unable to read the room, I support illegal immigrants raping British girls. I endorse whatever dystopian features of our society exist. I’m responsible for destroying national identity.
