For the third time in less than a year, voters have made a supposedly radical choice when it comes to national leadership in the West. They’ve proven themselves not to be sexist, racist or dumb, though — but acting rationally in their own interests.
Even as the global elite dismiss them as “populist,” or as contributing to more electoral dysfunction that threatens democracy.
This time, the “unthinkable” — unthinkable if you live in a bubble — happened in Britain. Last Thursday, Labor, led by Jeremy Corbyn, nearly toppled Theresa May’s Conservative government, with 40 percent of the vote to the Tories’ 42.4 percent.
And though Tony Blair leftovers in Labor have been warning for two years that Corbyn is unelectable, he got nearly the same share of votes that Blair got in his reelection triumph 16 years ago.
Plus: When you consider that smaller parties like the Liberal Democrats and Scottish nationalists have more in common with Labor than with the Conservatives, Corbyn demolished the incumbents.
That’s especially true when you also consider that May only called an optional election because she thought she’d win a landslide.
One last thing: Young people came out for Corbyn, increasing their turnout by as much as two-thirds since 2015, when Cameron was last elected. Young people aren’t going anywhere.
May called the election because she assumed that....
Read the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post