LONDON ¨C Misery loves company, so refugees from America¡¯s Republican Party should understand that theirs is not the only party that has chosen a leader who confirms caricatures of it while repudiating its purposes. Jeremy Corbyn, the silliest leader in the British Labour Party¡¯s 116-year history, might kill satire as well as whatever remains of socialism.
Labour was founded in 1900 to demonstrate that a 19th-century political prophet was mistaken. Karl Marx had proclaimed that meaningful amelioration of working-class conditions could not be achieved by non-revolutionary, parliamentary means. Labour helped make modern Britain into a mostly middle-class, generally temperate nation impervious to exotic politics.
In the 1983 election, the last time Labour flirted with serious socialism, its manifesto was described as ¡°the longest suicide note in history,¡± and a party activist advocated ¡°no compromise with the electorate.¡± The electorate was not amused, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher continued residing at 10 Downing Street.
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