Mediaboss Marketing

Chalk up another loss for conventional wisdom. As Thursday dawned in Great Britain, it was expected that Prime Minister Theresa Mays Conservative Party would expand itsmajority in Parliament over the Labour Party and its far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn. Friday dawned upon a different reality: The Conservatives have 318 seats a loss of 13 seats from the previous election and eight short of the 326 needed an official majority. They will forma coalition government with the far-rightDemocratic Unionist Party, but with fewer votes to spare for any vote on Brexit (or any vote at all) the new government will be far weaker and less stable. Mays resignation and/or another election soon are both distinct possibilities.

Corbyn and Labour, with 262 seats, on the other hand have beaten every expectation: the most seatsfor Labour since 2005, the biggest share of the popular vote since 2001 and the largest popular vote swing toward Labour (almost 10 percent) since 1945. Corbyns success provides a model for U.S. progressives in 2018, 2020 and beyond: Ifyou need turnout to win as liberals in the United States do you need a bold, uncompromising platform with real solutions

Look at what Corbyn succeeded in spite of.He was attacked mercilessly by other Labour members of Parliament and party leaders, including former prime minister Tony Blair. (Many of the Labour MPs who held their seats on Thursday had voted no confidence in himjust last year.) He faced an unprecedentedly hostile media environment not just the standard mudslinging from right-wing tabloids, but skepticism and condescension from objective and even ostensibly pro-Labour outlets. Even many loyal supportersworried when the electionbegan that he would set back leftism.

Then look at what drove Corbyn to victory. No, it was not President Trump, though some Democrats are trying to make it sound that way. Labours surge came weeks before May struggled to deal with Trumps terrible tweets about terrorist attacks. Labour succeeded because turnout rose to its highest since 1997. The youth vote came out: One exit poll estimated turnout among voters under 35 at 56 percent, up 13 percent from 2015.Other estimates put youth turnoutas high as 72 percent.

Why was turnout so high? Because Corbyn was able to generate excitement among Labour voters, especially the young. Thats in no small part because of this years Labour manifesto (the British equivalentof aparty platform). Unlike other recent versions, mostly incrementalist documents that tweaked what came before, the 2017 edition is the boldest in decades: more money for the National Health Services and other major initiatives, a jobs first Brexit and free university tuition,financedby taxingcorporations and the wealthiest. The manifesto and the campaign were summed up by their elegantly simple slogan: For the many, not the few. To be clear, May ran a terrible campaign, including an insultingly vague manifesto, but Corbyn and Labour were able to capitalize so well because they offered a real alternative.

If liberalsare to succeed in the United States and elsewhere, they need high turnout, and especially high youth turnout. To do so, theyneed enthusiasm. Corbyn, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others who have succeeded at this dont possess some mysterious charisma unavailable to everyone else. Unlikely voterswill not be convinced to turn out for the country is already great! or other vague platitudes. They will come out for real solutions to their problems, whether those solutions arecentrist, liberal, conservative or (perish the thought!) socialist.

But American voters arent like British voters, comes the reply. Thats partly true but only partly. The ever-more-connected world meanswhat was local is national and what was national is global.And there are few issues felt globally like inequality. In both countries, as elsewhere, people feel disenfranchised and unheard as many communities fall behind or remain left behind. Between 2009 and 2013 the most recent years available 85 percent of economic growth in the U.S. went to the top 1 percent.Young people in particular have come of age first watching an economic collapse driven by reckless speculation on Wall Street and deregulation in Washington and then seeing the financial firmswrongdoing go unpunished. Most votersbelieve something is very wrong with our current system.Offeringmore of the sameis a path to political obsolescence. Offering new ideas is a path to success.

Politics has changed, declared Corbyn Thursday night, and politics isnt going back in the box where it was before. He is right about British politics. If progressivesapply the lessons of his success judiciously,U.S. politics will also change for the better, for the many and not the few.

More:
Jeremy Corbyn's success is a model for American progressives - Washington Post (blog)