http://www.nationalreview.com/node/423951/print Meet Jeremy Corbyn, the New Loony-Left Socialist Leader of Britain’s Labour Party
By John Fund — September 13, 2015
Socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s victory to become the new leader of Britain’s Labour party doesn’t have an exact parallel in the Unites States.
But just imagine if the nominee of the Democratic party was selected by a vote of party members. Say that Bernie Sanders decided to run, but he needed the backing of 35 of his fellow Democrats in Congress to be considered. He was so extreme, though, that he didn’t have their support. Then 14 Democrats — either out of pity or a desire to broaden the debate — “lent” him their names so he could get on the ballot. Sanders then shocks everyone by riding — all the way to victory — the surge of new, left-wing members. A raft of moderate party officials then refuse to work with him, and the threat of civil war suddenly hangs over the party.
That’s what just happened in Britain. After Labour’s stunning defeat at the hands of the Conservatives last May, many Labour supporters came to the conclusion they hadn’t been left-wing enough. They pointed to Scotland, where Labour was wiped out by the Scottish National party, a group of nationalists even more left-wing than them. So why not go with Corbyn? After all, many of his Labour supporters actually make the argument that none of his opponents for the leadership could have won the next general election in 2020 anyway.
We are witnessing the mass suicide of a major Western political party, and that isn’t a good thing. The anti-free-market fervor and louche attitudes toward totalitarianism that Corbyn’s Labour party now expresses are a danger signal for all democracies. One of the jobs of an opposition party is to be responsible, and from Spain to France to Italy there are signs that the opposition is shirking this duty.
continued
