{"id":36958,"date":"2016-06-27T15:14:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T14:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=36958"},"modified":"2016-06-27T16:12:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T15:12:40","slug":"william-cayley-what-happened-a-us-doctor-on-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2016\/06\/27\/william-cayley-what-happened-a-us-doctor-on-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"William Cayley: What happened? A US doctor on Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/07\/bill_cayley_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-31912\" src=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/07\/bill_cayley_2-243x300.jpg\" alt=\"bill_cayley_2\" width=\"123\" height=\"152\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/07\/bill_cayley_2-243x300.jpg 243w, https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/07\/bill_cayley_2.jpg 551w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 123px) 100vw, 123px\" \/><\/a>What just happened?\u00a0Sitting in my clinical office in rural Wisconsin, the outcome of the \u201cBrexit\u201d vote seems quite far away\u2014yet the day after 23 June\u2019s vote, the shock and surprise emanating from the news stories is almost palpable.<\/p>\n<p>While I can\u2019t claim to know much about the inner workings of British domestic politics, as I\u2019ve followed recent news the parallels between the options facing voters in the UK and in the US are strikingly clear: one finds strength in rugged independence, in nationalism, and keeping \u201cthem\u201d at bay; while the other side represents (or represented?) a choice for collaboration and for the (perhaps uninspiring?) status quo.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On 23 June\u00a0an \u201celectorally significant\u201d percentage of British voters picked the former over the latter, and the news is replete with voices wondering \u201cwhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later this year, voters in the US will go to the polls as well. Many of the specific concerns and issues differ, but the choices are much the same: continuity or disruptive change? International cooperation or ruggedly independent nationalism? Welcome or isolation?<\/p>\n<p>Getting excited and reveling in independence, in portrayals of \u201cstrength\u201d and \u201cindependence,\u201d and in isolationist nationalism might \u201cfeel good\u201d for a time, but what comes next?<\/p>\n<p>As voters in the United States contemplate choices to be made later this year, I hope that every single one will give careful and deliberate thought to the long term results of their choices\u2014or come November, the American electorate may also be left wondering . . .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat just happened?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William E Cayley Jr<\/strong>\u00a0practices\u00a0at the Augusta Family Medicine Clinic; teaches at the Eau Claire Family Medicine Residency; and is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Department of Family Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong>\u00a0I declare that I have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and I have no relevant interests to declare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What just happened?\u00a0Sitting in my clinical office in rural Wisconsin, the outcome of the \u201cBrexit\u201d vote seems quite far away\u2014yet the day after 23 June\u2019s vote, the shock and surprise emanating from the news stories is almost palpable. While I can\u2019t claim to know much about the inner workings of British domestic politics, as I\u2019ve [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2016\/06\/27\/william-cayley-what-happened-a-us-doctor-on-brexit\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,1357,14769],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-health","category-us-health-care","category-william-cayley"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}