Boris and Biden made the same mistakes

Boris and Biden made the same mistakes
The departure of Boris Johnson, who this morning announced that he would resign as British prime minister and Conservative leader, prompted the latest round in a years-long game of comparing him to a blond bombshell political disruptor on this side of the Atlantic.

Johnson’s insistence that he cling on to the bitter end offered fresh ammo for the peddlers of the case that he is the British Trump. But sulking for a day or two before throwing in the towel isn’t exactly January 6, and a self-centered determination to fight…

Boris and Biden made the same mistakes

The departure of Boris Johnson, who this morning announced that he would resign as British prime minister and Conservative leader, prompted the latest round in a years-long game of comparing him to a blond bombshell political disruptor on this side of the Atlantic.

Johnson’s insistence that he cling on to the bitter end offered fresh ammo for the peddlers of the case that he is the British Trump. But sulking for a day or two before throwing in the towel isn’t exactly January 6, and a self-centered determination to fight on isn’t unusual among politicians who make it to the top. More generally, as Freddy Gray explains, the overwrought Trump-Johnson comparisons misunderstand the roles both figures have played in their respective parties’ and countries’ recent history.

But the really annoying thing about the Trump comparisons is that they get in the way of what, to me at least, is a more illuminating transatlantic-Atlantic comparison: between the outgoing British prime minister and the sitting US president. Yes, Boris Johnson has far more in common with Joe Biden than Donald Trump.

The last time I made this point, in early 2020, things were looking a lot better for Johnson. He had wrestled the top job from Theresa May, secured a bigger House of Commons majority than any Conservative since Margaret Thatcher and made good on his promise to get Britain out of the EU. Biden was riding high too. He had come through the Democratic primary and seemed set to beat Trump in November.

To rehash the basic Biden-Boris case briefly, both are consummate political insiders capable of striking an outsiderish pose. Both are ideologically flexible. Both made it to the top by being more in touch with voters than the rest of their party: Boris understood the public mood on Brexit, Biden realized that the path to victory in 2020 was via a pared-back promise to end the pandemic and get rid of Trump, not the kind of radically transformative policies proposed by his primary rivals.

If Boris and Biden struck me as similar when they were on top of the world, they look no less alike now that things have gone south. Both oversee countries where there is a deep sense that, politically and economically, things just aren’t working. When it comes to their core election pledges: Biden, it is now clear, did not vanquish Trump quite as decisively as it seemed at the time, just as Boris is still faced with Brexit-related headaches that undercut the sense that he “got Brexit done.”

Both have looked ineffectual in office, sometimes misinterpreting their mandates, at others incapable of making good on even the most basic promises. Both had cantered leftwards on policy. Both are epic buck-passers, naturals at blaming someone else when things go wrong.

And both have lost the confidence of the political parties that they saved only a few years ago. For a while, Boris looked certain to limp on thanks to the paucity of viable alternatives. But the Conservatives have finally had enough. We will have to wait until 2024 to find out if the Democrats will be any more patient.

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