Say what you like about Nigel Farage, he shows a knack for pure politics that, unfortunately, the remain campaign never has. His latest double reverse ferret – coming out in favour of a second referendum, while insisting that it’s “the last thing he wanted” – has for some reason been welcomed by high profile remainers.

The mood seems to be that if “even” Farage agrees with their call for a second referendum on Brexit, that is a sign that they’re winning the argument. Nobody has seemingly considered the idea that if Farage is calling for it then it may not be a good idea. Of course he would love a second referendum because there hasn’t been enough Nigel Farage on the telly for Nigel’s liking lately. He is a shameless egotist who ran Ukip as a vehicle for self-promotion of his own brand. While winning the referendum should have been a grand victory, it has resulted in him being sidelined in favour of actual cabinet ministers. A new campaign would put him front and centre where he feels he is entitled to be. It’s a no-brainer.

Any remain campaign would have to speak to the crises of underemployment and destitution in high-leave voting areas

A rerun is a win-win proposition for Farage. Another victory for leave secures the UK’s commitment to Brexit and solidifies the idea that people opposed to it are “remoaners” who dislike democracy. A reversal putting remain over the top, meanwhile, can be presented simply as the government holding votes until it gets the answer it wants. And most importantly a remain win would get him back on the TV to complain about it – which is, after all, what he wants more than anything.

The original referendum was toxic, but a rerun would be worse. Human rights campaigner Jude Wanga said: “Statistics show that racist attacks and hate crimes increased significantly post Brexit, on the back of a leave win. With the conversation on immigration still embryonic some 18 months later, the conditions for migrants to be able to safely campaign no longer exist, nor have any conversations around a second referendum addressed this point.”

This latter point reveals some of the deeper problems with remain. Like the hashtag “resistance” in the US, the nebulous coalition has done little to engage with the underlying problems that gave rise to Brexit, preferring to engage in symbolic self-indulgences like starting dozens of go-nowhere “centrist” parties on Twitter. By treating the non-London hinterlands of “Brexit Britain” as a place populated by a homogenous blob of white working-class flat-cap wearers with charming accents and misguided view who simply need to understand the truth explained to them by their betters, they have failed to come up with any positive argument for EU membership.

What they have is arguments that leaving will make things worse. The problem is that while they may be correct in the most part, they still amount to an argument for keeping the status quo. “Let’s go back to 2015 when everything was OK for me, personally” will not resonate with the post-industrial areas where the status quo feels bleak already. A new campaign’s best hope would be that people see how badly Brexit is being carried out and decide to not bother, but negative campaigns are dangerous territory where you end up hoping that more of your opponents’ voters stay home than your own, and this can easily backfire.

Strategically, any new remain campaign would have to have Labour onside. Corbyn has reaffirmed this weekend that a second referendum is not Labour policy. As with all political positions this could change, but it’s very unlikely that a significant number of Labour MPs would wish to sway the leadership on this issue. Over 60% of Labour voters may sway remain, but over 60% of Labour’s constituencies went leave. Campaigning for remain again as an MP in a leave-voting area would require careful navigation through numerous land mines, and it’s likely that any nuanced position short of full-throated pro-EU cheerleading will be attacked first and foremost by hardcore remainers, because that’s what they’ve been doing since the referendum and that is what they are comfortable with.

Running a remain campaign that attempts to speak to the crises of underemployment and destitution in high-leave voting areas while facing down the anti-immigrant rhetoric will be difficult enough. Once you factor in the internal splits along centrist/leftist lines, background briefings to the Mail and the Sun about how Corbyn is a closet leaver, and the relentless self-sabotage that will inevitably occur, it looks like a nightmare that is likely to result in any fragile remain coalition permanently fractured and blaming each other for a 55:45 loss.

Democracy is more than just voting, and democratic engagement involves more than simply polling to see whether A or B has a bigger fan club this year. Brexit should have been a wakeup call to get people up and out into the messy world of actual politics – something Labour, despite criticism from referendum obsessives, has started to do. Eighteen months on, it’s clear that the remain hardliners would rather replay a fight with Farage to show that they were right all along than meaningfully engage with any of the ways in which they were, and still are, wrong.

• Phil McDuff writes on economics and social policy