"'So if Joe Hadn't Stolen Your Speech, He Wouldn't Be President'"

"I'm strengthened naturally by what he's managed to do in these years in which he’s been in the presidency, in taking courageous, imaginative and very constructive action to combat deindustrialization, to improve the U.S. trade position, to provide wider opportunities for people, to enhance justice. If people look back over the last three or four years at economic performance and standing in the world, they'll have to give Joe Biden a hell of a lot of credit because he's earned it. So I've got confidence in Joe, and I'm sure he can continue to provide very good, outstanding leadership over the years to come." 

At Politico, Ben Jacobs talks with Neil Kinnock.

"On Music, Style and the State of the Nation"

"'I've only been at festivals when they pay me,' he says, appalled. 'They wouldn't entice me otherwise. Stand in a field of mud and shit for hours, off my face? Doesn't appeal to me. Call me old-fashioned. I just like a roof on it.'"

Miranda Sawyer at The Observer talks with Paul Weller.

"When You Lose an Election in a Democracy, You Deserve To"

"After telling his party that it was 'time to get serious' about pursuing power, he praised Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair, the only Labour leaders to have secured election victories. This is a refreshing change. After the 2010 defeat, Labour became gripped by a self-destructive compulsion for trashing its own record. Ed Miliband, and Mr Corbyn even more so, often talked as if the party's 13 years in power between 1997 and 2010 were a long and terrible mistake. This was popular with some activists, but not a formula for success at the ballot box. Why would the average voter be encouraged to choose Labour by Labour's own leaders bad-mouthing their party’s record? Labour now has a leader who expresses pride in what his party has achieved with power, an essential requisite for aspiring to hold office again." 

At The Guardian, Andrew Rawnsley reacts to Keir Starmer's first party conference speech.

"An Honest Conversation"

"But if the left wants to salvage those policies for today's Labour party, it needs to be honest about what went wrong. Corbynism was undoubtedly severely damaged by internal sabotage; but the leadership operation itself was often profoundly dysfunctional and demoralised, something that wasn't rectified because of post-2017 hubris and Corbyn’s avoidance of conflict. A top team that was united descended into brutal acrimony long before the election was even called. Those who insisted the antisemitism crisis was a smear campaign and nothing else–that Labour's opponents would always seize on it did not mean it was not a very real problem–not only caused pain to Jewish people but also helped strip away Corbynism's idealistic sheen."

Owen Jones at The Guardian gives an obituary the Corbyn-era Labour Party.

"Believes He Has Been Vindicated When the Record Shows He Has Been Humiliated"

"After Labour's historic defeat in last December's general election, he now claims the moral victory. The coronavirus outbreak and the British government’s response to it—which has included wage guarantees for furloughed workers and quasi-renationalization of the railways—has vindicated his brand of far-left politics, he told the BBC. 'I didn't think that it would take only three months for me to be proved absolutely right,' he said with his usual modesty and grace. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party holds a 26-point lead in public polling."

Liam Hoare at Slate marks the end of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

And Owen Jones in The Guardian welcomes the new leader, Keir Starmer.

"A Man Rooted in Politics Who Is Not a Natural Politician"

"Georgia Gould said she didn't back him as Labour's parliamentary candidate at first. 'I was like, is he local? Is he a community MP?' she said. 'And I could not be more wrong about him. His dedication to supporting people locally, to supporting the council and being there for us has just been amazing. ... We really rely on him, you know, when things get difficult now.'"

Emily Ashton at Buzzfeed profiles would-be Labour leader Keir Stamer.

"The Mainstream Left Is in Serious Trouble in the West"

"The ethnic change that is transforming western societies makes cultural issues more relevant, benefiting the Right while harming a Left that finds itself hemmed in by progressive norms, unable to adapt to new electoral realities."

Eric Kaufmann at Law & Liberty explains "Why the Left Is Losing."

"Torn Apart by Cross-Currents Over Immigration and by Tensions Between Socially Progressive Urbanites and Traditionalist Working-Class Voters"

"In a piece last year in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Yascha Mounk noted the industrial, trade-union roots of European social democratic parties and how a reason for their decline 'is, quite simply, that fewer and fewer people are now ensconced in the milieus that gave birth to these movements in the first place.'
"With cultural issues supplanting economic issues in salience during the 21st century and the former sense of economic solidarity giving way, the old center-left parties had trouble pleasing all of their supporters, or even most of them."

Rich Lowry at Politico compares Bernie Sanders to Jeremy Corbyn.

"Somewhere in the Heavens, the Gods Are Laughing"

"Boris Johnson has come to power at a moment of high uncertainty. Progressive theories that claimed to divine the future have proved as trustworthy as Roman auguries. Gramsci's belief that the working class makes history has turned out to be right, at least in Britain, but not in the way he and his disciples imagined."

John Gray at the New Statesman explains "Why the left keeps losing."

"It Is Also a Mistake to Pit Elements of the Working Class Against Each Other"

"While advocates of identity politics have unarguably good intentions, the delivery of the message has been lost, and has often left us defending the liberal status quo.
"The idea that capitalism can be made OK if we only make the 10 people sitting around the boardroom table creaming profits from the workers, female, BAME, or LGBTQ+ is a bogus one.
"By ignoring the very real need for sweeping socialist economic reform, we are hurting these groups of people most of all, since oppressed or marginalised groups are hardest hit by capitalism."

Beck Robertson at Morning Star argues that the Labour Party's problem is "identity politics and its role in the perception of the party as a vehicle for middle-class Islingtonites."

"In Trying to Keep Both Its Remain and Leave Voters Happy, It Has Pleased Almost No One"

"This had been less of an election and more of an unpopularity contest. Boris and Corbyn were widely disliked and mistrusted throughout the country. All that had been at stake was which leader was hated the least. And the exit polls had indicated that Boris had won. No one expected him to deliver on the promises he had made but they were less worried about that than the promises on which Labour might deliver. So we were heading for a Tory government and a Brexit that would continue to divide the country. Hell, it was odds-on that not even a majority of leavers would like the Brexit deal Boris ended up with. And in the meantime, Corbyn would soon be eased out. Written out of Labour's history. A bad dream that had cost the country dear."

John Crace at The Guardian discusses the worst election loss for the Labour Party since, perhaps, 1935

Phillip Blond at First Things adds an analysis.

As does Owen Jones, also at The Guardian, along with Alex Niven.

"What May Be Deplorable Must Not Become Incomprehensible"

"As the political scientist Eric Kaufmann points out, income and social background are having ever less bearing on voting behaviour: 'Small-c conservative working-class voters have migrated to the Conservative party because of immigration and Brexit. On the other side, successful educated cosmopolitans opt for Labour or the Lib Dems.' This is most vividly seen in the correlation between remain voting and higher education. This is not a matter of economics, he says, but 'a measure of psychological openness and a liberal worldview'. "

Simon Jenkins at The Guardian discusses white identity politics in Britain and the United States.

Herbivores vs. Canivores

"Labour will never form a government if its remainer and leaver wings become permanently estranged. While it is certainly true that the majority of Labour voters back remain, a significant minority voted to leave the EU. It is not enough for Labour to pile up votes in the pro-remain big cities: it needs to win marginals in the north, the Midlands and south-east as well–constituencies that voted leave in June 2016 and for the Brexit party last month. Labour's remainers believe departure from the EU will make those who voted to leave worse off. Labour's leavers think the remainers are subverting democracy."

Larry Elliott at The Guardian argues that Jeremy Corbyn "is right to try to move on from the referendum and focus on healing the country."

The Milkman of Human Kindness

"Music has maybe lost some of its vanguard role in youth culture, he says. 'Everything you wanted to say about the world, there was only one medium. Music told you how to dress, who to like, who to hate, where to go, where not to go. Obviously, social media has that role now. Music has lost its central place where everyone gathered, so it's bound to be now more about entertainment. But young people still struggle to make sense of their lives. There are a number of ways you can channel that, and music remains one of them."

Sam Wollaston at The Guardian interviews Billy Bragg.

"We Have Defined the New Common Sense"

"The ravaging effects of an unfettered financial market, culminating in the crash of 2008 and compounded by austerity measures imposed in its aftermath, has made Britain one of the most unequal countries in Europe. The sixth-wealthiest country in the world, the UK now has 4 million children living in poverty and nearly 4 million adults forced to use food banks. The country is battered by insecure work, stagnant wages, and depressed productivity, alongside rising costs and a spiraling housing crisis. In June, the UN announced it was launching an investigation into UK poverty. Earlier this month, a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research said that the UK economy isn't working and called for a radical overhaul. The public is indicating a preference for that, too, with overwhelming support for Labour's proposals to renationalize rail and utilities, invest in large infrastructure projects, and reintroduce a higher rate of tax for the highest earners."

Rachel Shabi at The Nation writes that "[i]f today's Labour leadership has caught the mood of the nation, it is because the country has caught up with them."

"The Policing of Opinion Is Now Established Practice in Societies That Believe Themselves to Be Freer Than They Have Ever Been"

"Yet the belief persists that a new society will appear once we have been stripped of our historic identities, and switched to a system in which all are deemed different and yet somehow the same. In this view, all identities are equal in being cultural constructions. In practice some identities are more equal than others. Those of practitioners of historic nationalities and religions, for example, are marked out for deconstruction, while those of ethnic and sexual minorities that have been or are being oppressed are valorized."

John Gray at The Times Literary Supplement criticizes "hyper-liberals."

"I Invite the Prime Minister to Leave the Theatre and Return to Reality"

"I referred to this being heresy–and I would argue that it is akin to religious dissent of the 17th Century, a radical break with conformity and the accepted way things are done. I think Corbynmania expresses along with economic frustration and anxiety about the future, a disgust with politics as usual–there is a revolt against the culture of the public image,  optics, spin, photo opportunities and staging–what Daniel Boorstin in his book The Image called pseudo-events[.]
"All substance and policy, Corbyn is the opposite of Blair and Cameron–but he is also the opposite of Trump–the politician as entertainer, as huckster.  Trump is all theatre."

Simon Reynolds at Shock and Awe discusses the appeal of Jeremy Corbyn.

"This Is, to Be Blunt, Political Suicide"

"You would think that parties of the center-left would grapple with this existential threat to their political viability. And some have. One reason Britain's Labour Party has done well in the last couple of years is that it has recognized the legitimacy of the issue. During the Brexit referendum, their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, expressed ambivalence toward remaining in the EU, careful not to lose his working-class base to the Europhobic right, recognizing the fears so many of his own supporters had about the impact of mass immigration on their lives, jobs, and culture. Even someone as leftist as Corbyn chose to be a pragmatist, trying to gain power, rather than a purist who might otherwise condemn his own voters as deplorable. And this is one reason why I have dwindling hopes that the Democratic Party will be able to defeat Trump in 2020."

Andrew Sullivan worries about immigration politics at New York.

"It's About the Value Divides in British Society and to Some Extent in All Rich Democracies"

"There is a group I call the 'Anywheres' who are about 25 percent of the society. They tend to be highly educated and mobile, and the combination of the two is especially important here in Britain because we have an overwhelmingly residential university system.  We also have a very very dominant capitol city that sucks in so much of the professional class. Anywhere people tend to value the kinds of things that you'd expect from people who live those kind of lives. They value openness and autonomy and fluidity. They generally find social change easy to handle, and they have weak attachments to place and to group.
"On the other side of the ledger you have a much larger group, less politically influential, but much larger, about 50 percent of the people, who I call 'Somewheres.'  They tend to be much less well educated and to be much rooted and attached to places and to value familiarity and security and the things you would expect to flow form those kind of lifestyles. Anywheres can find social change easy and have weak group attachments whereas Somewheres find social change more difficult and tend to have much stronger group attachments, whether to nation or city or place."

John Judis at Talking Points Memo interviews David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere.

Trump May

David Frum at The Atlantic reacts to former FBI chief James Comey's testimony against Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May's snap election.

Steven W. Thrasher and Owen Jones at The Guardian react to the British election (as does John B. Judis at The New Republic). And Joseph Stiglitz blames austerity for Britain's problems.