That a nation, in a time of crisis, would vote to maintain the existing leadership of the country or opt for a strong leader is perfectly understandable and all-too-human. Winston Churchill's rise to power in Britain when the country found itself at war against the axis powers is a case in point.

During peacetime a leader like Churchill would have proven to be a disaster for Britain. The man himself being a product of a late Victorian mind set that could never accept the inevitable demise of the empire.

But during times of war, a Jurassic blockhead like him was precisely what the doctor ordered and it was his simple yet unwavering convictions and singularity of purpose that saw Britain through the worst years of conflict.

There is, however, an important difference between the state of Britain at war in the 1940s and the predicament that the United States of America finds itself in today.