The Corbyn Quotient
When Jeremy Corbyn took the leadership of the Labour Party he was ridiculed as too old, out of touch, and sure to lose big in any election, perhaps destroying chances for the Labour Party for a decade. Besides, he road a bicycle to work.
So said, the Blairites in parliament and the Media.
Fast forward and he has proved he naysayers wrong on every point. In a nutshell -- authenticity and intelligent solutions communicate. And biycles are eco-friendly.
"Authenticity" means principles -- and not compromising those values to suit the most recent news cycle trying to look "trendy".
"Intelligent solutions?" What works, works. What doesn't work -- is usually obvious -- and everybody know.s They like to say, "If it aint broke, don't fix it." Even when so many things are "broke" So we know that public healthcare is progressively broken -- but fixing it is simple, Fund it.
Now take the issue of inequality, We have always had obscenely rich people, right? But we don't care as long as we have the house, the car, the missus or the mister.
Lose the house, the car, the significant other - and you want to blame somebody -- or some thing - which might be the inequality that predicated your losses. Rich people have more money than they need and they usually achieved that wealth taking advantage of publicly funded infrastructure.
The solutions to most problems are not rocket science. We can see how well they work in many smaller countries worldwide.
"Neoliberalism" clearly doesn't work. Privatization doesn't work.
Public ownership of things that everyone uses -- trains, subways, the internet, banks and so on means you get a say in how these things of common interest are managed -- rather than a single rich person, mostly living on an island in the Caribbean or in Riyadh,. Public ownership does work. As do small companies and entrepeneurships.
America was at its most prosperous when tax rates were 90 %.
Corbyn also realizes it is possible to say No to alliances which don't deliver the benefits they promise -- and suck up money from the Treasury. The UK's nuclear "deterrent" is a waste of money.
But modern "progressive" parties find principles and commonsense problematic. Faced with a challenge from the status quo -- they cave.
Syriza, for example, was nominally "progressive" but caved in to the Eurocrats.It was "realism" they said. Now they are worse off than ever.
On the other hand, the Russians facing the combined opposition of the US and all of its allies did not cave -- and they are now stronger for it. Putin, like Corbyn, has principles. Sanctions have in fact helped Putin mobilize his people and energize the economy.
The Chavistas in Venezuela did not cave -- and their right wing opposition has gone nowhere. The "democratic opposition" as the US would call it, is actually further to the Left! -- the leftwing of Chavism, driving change
.
DO NOT CAVE
.
In Canada, Thomas Mulcair could have won the previous election. But he had caved long before, moving to the Right, which allowed Trudeau - -- to win by attacking from the Left and then governing to the right. Trump LOVES Justin. Guess why,
The lesson should be obvious for Canada's NDP and its new leader Jagmeet Singh. Singh is young, bright and progressive. But he wears three piece suits. The Pink turbans are a plus. But he has no program that we can see. He treads gingerly around the "principles", trying to be the Sikh Everyman.
He is the Counter Trudeau but more of a fashion statement than a politician. The voters do not want an alternative Trudeau -- the present model is good enough.
To repeat voters want is:
- authenticity
- intelligent solutions
Common interest must be defined by policy and enunciation of values.
Advice for Jagmeet.
- Get a Policy. A list of values.
- Lose the suits.
- Get a nickname. Like "Jag" or "Jagger".
- Do more of this:
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