What the British Election Tells Us about 2020

Brexit! Brexit! Brexit! That word perfectly embodies British politics today because it highlights the divisions within British politics and the problem with the socialism brand. The recent 2019 British election cost the Labour Party their worst defeat in a generation in an election that was supposed to belong to the Labour Party. Why did the anti-Brexit party lose in a country that is turning against Brexit? 

The reason for the Conservative upset in 2019 was due to a change in focus by the public from the Conservatives to the Labour. The party in power is only defeated when the opposition is able to highlight the mistakes of the majority. This allows the opposition to make a strong case to the people for a political realignment. This wasn’t the case in 2019 because the entire campaign was about how Jeremy Corbyn, the self-proclaimed socialist, would have ruined Britain because the socialists are crazy. The person to blame for the Labour Party’s failure is Jeremy Corbyn. All the Conservatives needed to do was to pull quotes from Corbyn's speeches, allowing the Labour Party to self-destruct. Conservatives also used Corbyn's radical positions to paint their opposition to Brexit as radical obstructionism while the Conservatives tried to diffuse the Brexit bomb. All of these factors resulted in a 60-seat loss for the Labour Party, causing a party revolution. Just like Brexit taught us about the power of right-wing populism that resulted in Trump’s election, the 2019 British election demonstrates the problems that come with embracing socialism. In short, it’s political suicide for a party.

Although Britain's elections teach us a lot about Britain, they have also been useful for predicting ideological movements in America. That's because the populations of both countries have similar demographic breakdowns, and parties with similar policies typically gain power in both countries. This election is a warning for the Democrats and a potential blueprint for Republicans in 2020. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's campaigns both embrace socialism, and Bernie Sanders, the leading progressive, calls himself a "democratic socialist." That’s dangerous because he’s a socialist who has been given safe haven in the Democratic Party. This looks terrible for the Democratic Party, and Trump has started to take advantage of this by using Bernie to label the party. This is allowing Trump to justify his clear misdeeds and atrocities by saying that it's all a witch hunt perpetrated by crazy, obstructionist Democrats. If you don't see it already, there are so many parallels between the two countries. Trump and Johnson are justifying their mistakes by throwing the blame on Democrats and on Labour, respectively.

Overall, Democrats have ruined their image over the past few months by looking like partisans unable to compromise, hurting the prospects of impeachment and allowing Trump to potentially win in 2020. There's a lot of uncertainty during this election year. The one thing I know for sure is that Democrats have their work cut out for them.