Not Just About Beating Expectations

Anyway, I promise to not be all about UK politics eventually, and I'm still a bit busy so I don't have time to explain What It All Means, but USians who think "what's the deal with Corbyn? he lost!" are really missing the fully story. It's complicated, but the short version is that Labour Establishment (Blairite MPs, their pals in the press, the broader orbit of People Who Claim To Speak For Labour) spent 2 years arguing that both Corbyn personally and Corbynism - his politics - would doom Labour not just in the next election, but perhaps for a generation. Even the "objective" BBC was completely hostile to Corbyn, instead spending its time fluffing Nigel Farage and his party, despite the fact that he was not an MP and his party had just a few MPs 1 MP. They treated Farage and UKIP like Politico and CNN treated Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and the Tea Party, with not much more justification. All this is wrapped around the politics of Brexit, which everyone Serious treated as the only issue in politics.

Don't have enough time now, as I said, but despite all that Corbyn managed to completely reverse all trends of the past 7+ years in UK politics. It's a big fucking deal.