BRITAIN AND US : ONE SHARED PARALYSIS

AS ELITES battle populists, 2 venerable democracies suffer similar crisis. In Parliament lawmakers are mired in gridlock over Britain's departure from the European Union, with no clear-path forward.

In Washington, President Trump stormed out of a meeting with congressional leaders who oppose his border wall, hardening a standoff that has shut down much of the government for longer than ever before.

Two governments paralyzed. Two populist projects stalled. Two venerable democracies in crises.

Rarely have British and American policies seemed quiet so synchronized as they do in in the chilly dawn of 2019, three years after the victories of Brexit and Donald J Trump upended the two nations' political establishments.

The countries countries seem subject to a single ideological weather system - one that puts pro-globalisation elites against a left-behind hinterland.

The similarities abound. Brexiteers love to compare their cause to America's war for independence.

At a recent right wing rally, one man marched with a scale model of the Liberty Bell. Mr. Trump has exuberantly backed Brexit, while his friend, the Brexit godfather Nigel Farage, appears on Fox News, invoking Europe's migrant crisis as a reason to back Mr. Trump's wall on the border with Mexico.

''It's stunning how painful this is,'' said Stephen K. Bannon, who when he was Trump's chief strategist was an architect of the president's immigration policy, and is an ally of Mr. Farage. ''If you're going to challenge the system, the system is going to fight back.''

Mr. Bannon likened what he said was the growing possibility that Mr. Trump will declare a state of  national emergency to build his wall over the objections of Congress to the once inconceivable but now real possibility that Britain will withdraw from the European Union in March without reaching a deal with Brussels - a so-called hard Brexit.

''Trump is getting ready for his own no-deal, hard-out,'' Mr. Bannon said, even as Republicans and Mr. Trump's aides and family are urging him not to take such a step.

The honor and serving of the latest Operational Research on 2 venerable democracies and the state-of-affairs, continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researchers Ellen Barry and Mark Landler.