What Corbyn's Defeat Means for the UK, America, and the Jewish People

UK Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn  

Like a lamb to the slaughter. That is what Jeremy Corbyn looked like this morning as he announced that he will be resigning as leader of the Labour Party in the UK. And a slaughter it was. A man whose name closely resembles the Hebrew word for sacrificial offering has been handed a resounding defeat in Yesterday’s election. The winner, Conservative Party (Tory) leader Boris Johnson. He was handed a mandate. His party won a majority of seats in the British Parliament. That should fast track the UK’s exit from the European Union. (More popularly known as Brexit.)

Whether that’s a good idea or not is up for debate. But it seems that this is what the vast majority of British voters wanted. Because that is what the election was all about.

That is not, however, why I am celebrating Johnson’s victory. Although I lean politically conservative and would in any case have been happy about a victory for conservatives, I am ecstatic about – not only Corbyn’s defeat but at his own ‘Brexit’ as the leader of one of the two major political parties in the UK. 

Which means that there is no longer any danger of an Israel hating antisemite becoming the leader of his country. His influence will no longer be anywhere near what it was as Labour Party Leader. Instead England will now continue to have a leader that supports the Jewish State while Labour has a lot of soul searching to do. That is something to celebrate! British Jews can now breathe a sigh of relief. And Israel can too.

I don’t know if all the publicity about Corbyn’s antisemitism had any impact on non Jewish voters. Or whether the unprecedented warning to British voters about it by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (as well as former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks) - did. But it doesn’t really matter. He lost big time. And I could not be happier about that.

Now that the Tories have won by such a big margin, what does this say about the kind of liberalism Corbyn was selling? Corbyn is an unapologetic socialist who campaigned on turning the UK into a socialist country. Promising to nationalize energy companies and other large corporations. All for the sake of redistributing the wealth so that the poor can share equally with the rich by making the rich poorer and the poor richer.  He promised British voters free ‘everything’ as well as having another referendum of Brexit in the hope that British voters would change their mind. He could not have been more wrong. It appears British voters want out now more than they did the last time they voted.

Which brings me to the 2020 election for President. One lesson to be learned here by what happened there, it is that thinking people realize that there is no such thing as free lunch. You have to pay for it somehow.

It seems that lesson has already begun to take hold  here. Democrats on the Left that have been promising the moon to voters have lost ground in the polls. Those that have expressed the ‘no free lunch’ idea have gained considerable traction. 

Which is why Pete Buttigieg is now leading all of his Democratic rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire. He has the momentum now. I have to admit that whenever I hear him talk about the issues, he makes the most sense – compared to all the rest of the top tier Democratic candidates.

This does not mean I support him. His views on Israel are problematic for me. He has said he would be willing to put pressure on Israel to implement his version of a peace deal with Palestinians A version based on the failed policies of the past. Buttigieg would withhold financial aid if they didn’t do his bidding in that regard. Nor am I all that happy with his more liberal social policies even if they aren’t as leftist as his rivals.

Which brings me back to the British landslide for conservatives. If there is a lesson to be learned from that victory it is the following. If Democrats want to win the election their leftward swing will not only not help them - it will very likely hurt them. 

All the Democrats have promised to mess with the economy to one extent or another. Claiming that it is all for the noblest of social purposes. It now seems that promising any of that at the expense of a thriving economy will hurt them big time. If the economy keeps going the way it has been under Trump… and American voters are any where near as concerned about what’s in their wallets as the British are (and  I think they are) I don’t see how Trump can lose.

Adding to that is the following. Even if House Democrats are trying to impeach the President for the most patriotic of reasons I think they are going to have a hard time selling that to the American people about the man most credited (even by many Democrats begrudgingly) for the current state of the economy. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the Democrats in the House that represent swing districts vote not to impeach.

So, like it or not, it looks like four more years of one of the most ego-maniacal and embarrassing Presidents in American history.