After resigning as a member of parliament amid scrutiny over an undeclared gift of 5 million pounds from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage put himself forward as his party’s candidate in the resulting Clacton by-election. He sought to turn the parliamentary inquiry into a battle between “the people” and “the establishment,” leaving voters, rather than Parliament’s standards watchdog, to judge his conduct.
All the major parties refused to contest the seat, dismissing it as a stunt designed to deflect attention from the investigation. That left Count Binface, a novelty candidate and satirical political persona who describes himself as an “intergalactic space warrior and leader of the Recyclons from planet Sigma IX,” as Farage’s main rival. On election night, Farage went on to celebrate his victory, declaring proudly that he had thus beaten “the establishment candidate.”
Indeed, this was one of the more significant blows that Farage and his fellow “populists” have struck against “the establishment.”
Binface, on the other hand, rejected the label altogether, citing Farage’s long political record and arguing that, in fact, his opponent was “slightly more establishment” than himself.
The exchange may sound ridiculous, of course, yet it points to a peculiar feature of contemporary politics, particularly as it has evolved over the past decade. In short, “the establishment” has learned that it can survive by pretending to be anti-establishment. Once distrust of elites became a political force in its own right, those who wield power had every incentive to appropriate the language of rebellion. And so, attacking “the establishment” no longer threatens it. In fact, it is so often the very thing that keeps it in power, as we have seen especially in the person of U.S. President Donald Trump.
A celebrity billionaire and member of the political elite managed to present himself as an outsider fighting a system supposedly rigged against “the people,” and the extraordinary success of this performance did not go unnoticed. If this was what voters wanted, “the establishment” had little choice but to adapt, and few were better equipped than Trump to give them exactly the show they were asking for. Others have been inspired by this strategy as well – even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted it to attack his political opponents, calling former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak the face of “the establishment.”
By now, many have come to see through this scam, though apparently that has not been enough to instill in them the skepticism necessary to recognize the same trick when it is performed by someone new. That U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s “anti-interventionist” rhetoric can resonate with a sizable sector of voters is surely a testament to this.
A somewhat more remarkable example, however, is former U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who has recently appeared on numerous podcasts, particularly those hosted by former MAGA-adjacent figures such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. His appearances have painted a picture of yet another “anti-establishment” voice, this time ostensibly from the left, and it seems that at least some voters have found "inspiration" in his perspective. Perhaps the naivete is partly due to what Biden Jr. himself described, when asked about his plans for the future, as “the desperate need of leadership” among “the people.”
Yet desperation is hardly a sound basis for political judgment. When people are in desperate need of something, they can become all too willing to believe whoever claims to offer it. This is precisely the appeal of self-styled “populists” like Farage. They do not merely promise to deliver what “the people” want, they convince them that they alone understand what that is. And once “the people” start actually believing that, it becomes very easy to mistake the performance of rebellion for rebellion itself.
