CNN's Greg Krieg files a dispatch getting a view from the left: More than 4,000 progressive activists and diehard "Berniecrats" spent this sweltering weekend in Chicago, at the People's Summit, a three-day gathering of liberals and their groups, but many had their eyes and ears on the United Kingdom, where leftist Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party leveled the Conservative government's majority in a general election Thursday. What does it mean and why does it matter? To start, apart from a few recent lower-profile races, the progressive movement has not exactly been racking up the wins. Coalitions are growing, excitement and engagement are up, but large-scale success -- like Labour's big day, which left the UK with a hung Parliament -- was taken here as validation and proof that progressive policies and message can work, that voters will support what more-cautious liberals worry might scare off the center. (Note here: Conservatives are expected to keep power in the UK, but only barely, and it's a pretty good bet that yet another round of new elections might not be far off. By comparison, most pundits and even Labour officials feared a wipeout as recently as a few weeks ago.) "For the many, not the few," was Labour's slogan -- one that, if the weekend event in Chicago is any indication, you should expect to hear more of from the American left. While the UK results emboldened the crowds, it was Sen. Bernie Sanders who electrified them. The Vermont independent spoke to the convention, gathered for its second annual meeting, on Saturday night. His speech was mostly familiar campaign-trail fare, updated to note current events, but included some searing criticism of the Democratic Party establishment. He called its "current model and the current strategy" an "absolute failure" and tweaked officials for not dedicating more assets to contests in traditionally red voter hubs. So is Sanders planning to jump back in the fray, in 2020, and fix it from the inside? "I would say that we intend to play a role in the 2020 election," his wife, Jane Sanders, said Saturday. "What that is remains to be decided, but nobody should step back. They should be completely engaged now and the leadership will rise. It will emerge." One more mystery unsolved. (More on that tomorrow …) |
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