Will a time come again for 'radical' left candidates?

Both Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders have suffered major defeats in their respective countries and neither will end up leading them.

Perhaps what is most remarkable though is that either got as far as they did, given 'conventional' political wisdom. Did an angry old man who calls himself a socialist really (twice) finish a strong second in his party's primary process... in America of all places? Did a second level player from Labour's 80s Bennite days really lead the post-Blair party and get close to actually forming a government in 2017? Both of these things did happen and I think they might just be a sign of things to come.

While both these men have failed to win enough electoral support to take power, they have at least succeeded in changing the conversation. Nationalisations, more public spending and free education are now mainstream issues in British politics. I believe its the same in America with Single-Payer healthcare. This is after years of being told by very sensible people that these ideas were radical left issues from the distant past so why dont we talk about something serious?

Where Corbynism failed is that it lacked any kind of insititutional support. After years of being marginalised, the left had few voices in the media or within politics which were not openly hostile. As part of the process, a new left media has emerged online and several left mps have been elected but this is only strength at the fringes and it was built from a low base. By that, i mean its all been built from nothing because people assumed the country had no political left at all.

The Labour Party has now elected Keir Starmer as a leader and moved back closer to the political centre, though that political centre is now arguably a bit further to the left as a legacy of Corbynism. I'll stay in the party and campaign for Keir because he is decent, without giving me close to everything i want.

I think the greater success of the Corbyn legacy could be years in the future though. Young people have moved to the left in unprecedented numbers anyway and in time could form a plurality of the electorate. In the mean time, the left needs to build its institutional strength: in unions, the media, in communities and in the party proper.

The current capitalist order is in crisis and was in crisis long before the virus hit. Centrists dont have solutions so unless ideas come from the left, the longterm victors will be the nationalist right. I dont wanna live in Oban's Hungary or on Ayn Rand island but these things are possible as the right tries to shape solutions to crisis with their own narrative.

There will be difficult times ahead. We lost the battle but, just perhaps, our time will come again.

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PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

I see more radical and even revolutionary left politics making a comeback. If you have people in crisis and basically make it impossible for people to vote their way out you create the perfect environment for revolutionary politics.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I seems absent on an electoral level in Canada though, maybe because your country largely escaped the last crash and never completely abandoned social democracy.

The NDP didnt do that well, in spite if strong debate performances by the leader. I dont know about things other than that.

ninjavu · 51-55, M

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I completely agree. It is impossible to vote our way out of the quagmire here.

@Burnley123 I think you're right to a certain extent about Canada -- treading the safe, middle road -- but there is definitely discontent here too on multiple levels, some of it old and some of it relatively new, and we're too close to the Disunited States to escape its effects. Part of the discontent (speaking of the electoral level) surrounds the fact that, despite the fact that we have 50% more viable parties here on the national level than our southern neighbour, the same two parties take turns running their four-year dictatorships. The current prime minister read the country's mood on that topic and lied to us to get elected in 2015 (besides stealing half of the NDP's policies), then made a sham review and drew a foregone conclusion that he couldn't do it. We'll get electoral reform here one day, but I might not live to see it unless this pandemic really shakes the public up politically.

A luta continua.

PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

@Burnley123 ninjavu is correct. A 3 way split on the right and Trudeau engaging in virtue signaling and buzzwords and promising both UBI and electoral reform got him elected along with a a concerted campaign in the Canadian media both right and liberal to smear Jaghmeet Singh with headlines from both right wing and traditionally "liberal" outlets publishing Op Eds with titles like "Is Canada ready for a PM that wears a turban" and playing up xenophobia which is largely what hurt the NDP more then anything. Jack Layton a white guy made landslide gains for the NDP with a nearly identical platform years previously.

As for social democracy you won't really see the decay from the outside much because things like healthcare are the jurisdiction of the provinces and the Feds really only are involved in additional funding. It would be like if the UK put the counties in charge of the NHS and merely gave them a boost to their budget every few years. Sadly conservatives at the provincial level love using healthcare cuts to balance budgets and give tax cuts. Frankly here in Manitoba probably the only reason why we are handling the pandemic as well as we are is because people are taking the social distancing seriously and the Tories haven't had a chance to finish taking a chainsaw to our healthcare system yet having only been in power since October.