Progressives (Liberals)

American Leftists Believed Corbyn’s Inevitable Victory Would Be Their Model

The British election results, like any election result, is the result of unique circumstances and multiple factors. It is also, however, a test of a widely articulated political theory that has important implications for American politics. That theory holds that Corbyn’s populist left-wing platform is both necessary and sufficient in order to defeat the rising nationalist right. Corbyn’s crushing defeat is a decisive refutation.

Many writers, not only on the left, detected parallels between the rise of Corbyn and the movement around Bernie Sanders. The latter is considerably more moderate and pragmatic than the former, and also not laden with the political baggage of Corbyn’s widely-derided openness to anti-Semitic allies. And yet many leftists have emphasized the similarities between the two, which are indeed evident. Both built youth-oriented movements led by cadres of radical activists who openly set out to destroy and remake their parties. Both lost in somewhat close fashion, Sanders in 2016 and Corbyn the next year. And fervent supporters of both men treated their narrow defeats as quasi-victories, proof of victory just around the corner.

Arguments of this sort tend to quickly devolve into straw-man attacks. So, in order to show that the view I’m describing is widespread, I am sharing lengthy excerpts from a half-dozen essays written by American leftists in recent years: [Chait here includes a half dozen such analyses from The Nation, Intercept, WP and others which you can read at link]

There are certainly some points that can be made on behalf of socialist politics. The great recession created among the young a much larger constituency for anti-capitalist politics than existed before; some “left-wing” policies, like tough financial regulation and generous pension benefits, do command broad public approval, while some “centrist” policies have proven unpopular.

Nonetheless, on the whole, the arguments extrapolating from the “success” enjoyed by Corbyn and Sanders suffered from delusional wishful thinking. Proceeding from the erroneous Marxist view that capitalism is growing more oppressive, and a working-class backlash is therefore inevitable, they glommed onto bits of data and ignored and large and growing array of evidence to the contrary.

In the U.K., this delusion created a bitter argument between the left and center-left. The former insisted on maintaining Corbyn as Labour leader, based on the idea not only that he could and would win, but in some cases that his Labour critics opposed him precisely because they feared he would. Their moralistic fervor made any sober political calculation impossible. As early as 2016, a writer for the progressive New Statesman was lamenting “The sheer intensity of [Corbyn’s support], combined with some of his supporters’ glassy-eyed denial of reality and desire to ‘purge’ the party unfaithful,” and compared it to “a cult or a religious movement.”

Corbyn’s victory became a matter of faith, and its adherents continued to tout wisps of evidence for it even in the face of dismal polling...

Whether a more moderate Labour leader would have defeated Johnson – who is highly unpopular, yet still far less unpopular than Corbyn – is unknowable. What is certain is that his delirious backers assumed his success, and built around it a self-serving theory from which they refused to deviate in the face of mounting indications of doom.

David Frum
@davidfrum
By a margin of 9 points, British voters now think Brexit a mistake. How does an opposition party then lose to Mr. Brexit? By nominating somebody / something even more unacceptable

Sharper readers will intuit why I've bolded one particular graph.

Quote:

At some point, blatham may swoop in with nonsense about anti-intellectualism. I revere intellectualism, but not if it requires contempt for those who don't pass the test of pseudo-intellectuals.

Who can resist a formal invitation to intellectual swooping?

Me, that's who.

Seems to me fin is speaking as a true rightist elite.........

Seems to me fin is speaking as a true rightist elite.........

The problem is not some sort of rebirth of early 20th Century fascism (although it may eventually lead to that) it is the perception of common everyday citizens that the elites running their governments (and their lives) not only don't respect their views and traditions but consider them, at best, boorishly ignorant and at worst, evil.

The primary difference and most concerning aspect of this shift is that the class that has moved from the right to the left expresses publically utter disdain for those they left behind and who have taken their place.

It is astounding that the Western Left now, consistently, looks down its collective nose at the working class of the world

First of all those on the right (unlike those on the left), rarely if ever, express contempt for everyday Americans who vote Democrat.

The average Democrat in 2019 sneers at Walmart Shoppers, Watta-Burger Eaters, virtually everyone living in the South, and Trump supporters, because they now see themselves as members of the elite: college-educated professionals who know so much more than a welder or farmer, and are, by far, morally superior to any Alabama or Texas cracker.

I feel pretty confident that trump won't get any meaningful percentage of the black vote...