No / Leave / Trump

I thought the UK Remain camp would win in the Brexit vote, because I could remember following the 1995 Quebec separation referendum.  (What teen boy isn’t mesmerized by Canadian politics?)  Canadian Tanya Krywiak remembers:

It was a night many will never forget. Twenty years ago, on Monday, October 30, 1995,citizens across Quebec went to the polls to decide the future of their province — and Canada.

The 1995 Quebec vote seems like an apt analogy to Brexit.  Really close, emotional, a kind of impractical vote that came to pass due to political posturing.  And then:

An astounding 93.5 per cent of those eligible turned up to vote either yes or no to sovereignty. At 10:20 p.m., the “no” side was declared the winner with 50.58 per cent.

Quebec voted, just barely, to remain in Canada.

At the time the narrow win for No was partly chalked up to the huge Unity rally and similar rallies across Canada:

The Unity Rally was a rally held on October 27, 1995, in downtown Montreal, where an estimated 100,000 Canadians from in and outside Quebec came to celebrate a united Canada, and plead with Quebecers to vote “No” in the Quebec independence referendum, 1995 (held three days after the rally). Held at the Place du Canada, it was Canada’s biggest political rally until 2012.

Highlighting the celebrate a united Canada part.  Because maybe that’s what the Remain people in the UK failed to do.

The Canadian Unity Rally was a celebration, it was for something, even just a feeling and a song.  It countered an emotional argument with an emotional argument.

There was something exciting and satisfying about exiting the EU.  Did the Remain people offer anything to celebrate?

In fairness there’s not a ton there.  I mean the EU’s flag sucks:

Sucks

There’s no good song, either.  (There’s the “Anthem of Europe” I guess).

Compare that to the 1995 Unity rally.  From the NY Times:

150,000 Rally To Ask Quebec Not to Secede

By CLYDE H. FARNSWORTH

Published: October 28, 1995

MONTREAL, Oct. 27— In an eruption of national pride, tens of thousands of Canadians poured into Montreal from across Canada today to call for unity and to urge Quebec to remain part of their country.

At the Place du Canada in downtown Montreal, a crowd estimated at 150,000 waved the maple leaf flag of Canada and the fleurs-de-lis flag of Quebec and sang the national anthem, hoping to convince the Quebecers to vote No on Monday in their referendum on whether their province should secede from Canada.

Take this to the most visceral level.  In the Trump vs. Hillary election, if you’re undecided, which side feels more emotionally satisfying?

Voting for Obama was emotionally satisfying, a celebration:

Role Play: you are Hillary’s top advisor (or Hillary herself).  How do make a vote for Hillary feel like something more emotionally satisfying than anti-Trump?  A celebration of what’s best about the USA?

Feel like she did a decent job of this with the help of both Obamas at the DNC: