There isn’t much good news in the world these days, so it’s worth taking the time to appreciate it delicious implosion of the future former prime minister Boris Johnson.

His landslide victory in 2019 against the unlucky Jeremy Corbyn of the Labor Party seemed to usher in a long period of right-wing dominance.

Johnson said The Economist, “He is well positioned to become one of the most powerful prime ministers of modern times.”

Less than three years later, canceled by the scandal, incompetence and rebellion of his own party, has announced plans to step aside once a new conservative leader is found.

There may be no new general elections anytime soon, but if there were, polls suggest the job could win by majority.

On Wednesday I heard the hosts of the British center-left podcast “oh god and now? “react, almost in real time, when Johnson’s cabinet ministers abandoned him en masse.

His euphoria was contagious.

“This is not analysis; This is euphoria to laugh! ” reporter Ian Dunt said.

At least someone is having a good time out there!

However, for an American liberal, the schadenfreude (joy over someone else’s misfortune) triggered by Johnson’s collapse mixes with envy.

We are seeing a still functioning democracy that eliminates its bombastic populist leader because its narcissistic amorality and dishonesty were simply too much.

Wednesday, one day after his resignation as Secretary of Health, Sajid Javid lashed out at Johnson during Question Time in the House of Commons:

“We have seen in great democracies what happens when divisions are rooted and not overcome. We can’t let that happen here. “

Johnson, a nationalist demagogue and swashbuckling liar, has often been compared to Donald Trumpeven in the protruding yellow hair.

Their political careers are certain of it parallel

The shocking success of the referendum Brexitthe cause for which Johnson finally came to power, heralded Trump’s even more shocking presidential victory.

Both men created new electoral coalitions making electoral raids with the disaffected voters of the working class.

Both have been succumbed to cruel tricks against immigrants, such as the Johnson administration’s recent plan deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

They both shared the contempt for the truth and the regulations of their respective governments.

But obviously Britain and America are very different countries, and not just because the UK has a parliamentary system, a form of government. generally more effective compared to our own presidential system.

The British are still clearly capable of being shocked by the sexual harassment and outright lies of officials, even when those officials are on their side.

His country is not heavily armed and does not have a powerful faction that regularly threatens violence.

Britain still appears to have minimal social agreement on the acceptable political behavior.

Your government is falling apart precisely because your society is not.

Taken as I am by the demoralizing misery of American politics, I can’t help but envy the relative uniqueness of the scandal that ultimately brought Johnson down:

lying about someone else’s sexual misconduct!

The end of the Johnson era was hastened by a member of parliament named Christopher Pincherwho recently got drunk and groped two men in a private Tory club.

It turns out that Pincher, who Johnson named deputy chief in February, had been accused of sexual harassment multiple times in the past.

Johnson and his allies said they were unaware of the allegations when he gave the job to Pincher, but he did, even joking that the lawmaker was “Pincher by name, Pincher by nature.”

Both Pincher and Johnson obviously behaved in known ways.

The colored part is the near-universal condemnation of his behavior and the widespread acknowledgment that, after years of bullying and dishonesty, Johnson’s concealment was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Imagine having the last straw!

I felt equally melancholy when I contemplated party gate, Johnson’s secret socialization scandal over the pandemic that prompted Conservatives to hold on to vote of no confidence last month, which the prime minister survived.

From time to time, I asked the Brits if there was really widespread anger towards Johnson or just satisfaction at having discovered him.

Under Trump, after all, Americans have grown accustomed to the hypocrisy, even if they still felt the need to report it.

However, everyone I spoke to told me that the the indignation was real.

This was partly due to the fact that the blockade of Great Britain was much more severe than ours and applied to the whole country; unlike Trump parties in 2020, Johnson broke the rules that his government was imposing on others.

However, to be truly mad at hypocrisy, you have to have some expectation that the people in power will follow the rules.

And to be embarrassed by the revelation of hypocrisy, as the Tories appeared to be, you have to accept that the standards applied to others apply to you as well.

Another way to put it is that intolerance of hypocrisy implies a democratic sensitivityin which it is assumed that at least all are subject to the same constraints.

Johnson’s career is ending, at least for now, as Trump’s should have done:

with public disgust that leads his own party to impeach him.

Like Trump, Johnson initially wanted to hold on to power when it was no longer feasible; unlike Trump, there was never a chance that he would call an armed mob.

Watching Johnson fall after living with Trump is like chasing a macabre movie with an intimate mystery.

They can both be murder stories, but only one has a reassuring order.

“We deserve a better class of bastards,” Dunt said on the podcast.

We all do.

However, as an American, I have to say: be thankful for what you have.

c.2022 The New York Times Company