Photograph by Dan Kitwood / Getty
Last year was a difficult time for the American progressive. All of the momentum, hope, and excitement built by the Bernie Sanders campaign was dashed as the primaries wore on, and to make matters worse, Trump, the antithesis of progress and social justice, wound up the ultimate winner of the election. The Brexit vote only served to solidify the feeling that 2016 marked a turn back towards principles like conservativism and nationalism that marked a stark departure from the Obama Era before it.
However, the results of the recent election in the United Kingdom not only staunched that loss of progressive power worldwide but issued a rallying call. All of the criticisms levied against Bernie Sanders—that he was too extreme, too unrealistic, too unappealing for moderates—were lobbed at Corbyn as well. The man who highly visible liberals from J.K. Rowling to Obama himself thought would destroy the left-wing’s presence in Westminster in fact was the one to save it.
Much attention was focused on the Millenial voters who came out in record numbers to make Corbyn’s success a reality. For once, our generation played the hero, not the cause, in the establishment’s narrative of world events. This is key, as most are quick to accept the idea that these sort of ideas are popular with young people but historically are reluctant to think young people will actually show up to make that popularity heard.
A confounding variable in many people’s minds, no doubt, is the historical tendency of generations to move to the right in adulthood. I’ve had many folks try to temper my enthusiasm for progressivism by pointing out this fact. However, this shift is happening to a much smaller degree than in previous generations. The reasons for this aren’t surprising.
The system’s sins are finally catching up with itself, and the impact is disproportionately felt by the young. Even stories of big success like mine are filled with stories of past frustration over how much we had struggled in the face of a system that was entirely ill-equipped for us. As the Trumpistas shout “Make America Great Again!” so many Millenials want to make it great for the first time, recognizing that it was never truly great for anything but affluent, white men.
Of course, some detractors have tried to focus on the fact that that is what people like Sanders and Corbyn are: fairly affluent white men. But this is using not just identity politics but politics as a whole in a perverse fashion. Political positions do not exist for the careers of the people who occupy them. They exist for the people they are supposed to benefit. While there are examples where the absence of diversity can feel deeply insulting, such as a room of men making decisions about women’s healthcare, ultimately it is more far more important in these instances to focus on the millions of people of diverse demographics who will benefit than the politician themselves.
This is why, even as a woman, I had no hesitation supporting Bernie: he had the platform that, from as far as I can tell, would benefit women the most, even if supporting him would disadvantage a singular woman in the form of Clinton. To focus on the significance of her womanhood as millions of women around the country struggle with numerous issues that she has not worried about for most of her adult life, if anything, alienated her from a lot of both Millenial women and older moderate women. Though it can be inspiring to see women in roles of high power, ultimately the glass ceiling has to be shattered from the bottom.
This mentality, not a “desire to impress boys” like some said (which is doubly ironic given that women who support Sanders are disproportionately queer), is going to prevent Clinton and her successors, whether merely ideological or biological as well (I’m looking at you, Chelsea), from achieving success on the national level. The Third Way has shown to be a path towards accumulation of wealth in the hands of the 1%. Neoliberalism is in its death throes, and the DNC will be taken down with it unless it accepts this.
We are in a time when the system is seen as so broken by most that they will also turn to those that are its harshest critics. This is what enabled Trump, even if he is an abomination produced by that very broken system, to rise to power. Though both Sanders and Corbyn have spent decades in their countries' respective legislative bodies, they have always been some of its vocal members against the mainstream current. Words on a legislative floor are, these days, worth far more than words on the campaign trail. This divide is backed up by the fact that Sanders has spent his time since the election continuing to fight for the people, while Clinton has focused almost entirely on one subject: why her loss to Trump was not her fault. Of course, this only serves to dig the establishment Democrats' hole deeper.
Regardless of who is in our elections in the coming years, though, these events in England, even if they were an ocean away, in our increasingly globalized world, are so important for the Left in America to take to heart. Success will come on the backs of grassroots candidates whose actions back up their rhetoric and who aren’t afraid to mean it when they say they are liberal.