One of the best written and most thought-provoking political books in recent decades was Jonathan Freedland’s Bring Home the Revolution. Essentially a paean of praise to American democracy, it skewered the knee-jerk anti-Americanism of so many of Freedland’s fellow leftists by comparing the state of British and US democracy and, remarkably for a book written by a Guardian columnist, pointing out how much we could learn from the US.
The originality of his argument was just that point: that we had something – anything – to learn from the US. That British democracy needed to learn lessons, however, was taken as a given, certainly on the left and on much of the right, too.
I am perhaps being unfair to Freedland to remind anyone of the book because, although its thesis was interesting and plausible back when it was published in 1998, anyone who came out with such an argument today would, rightly, be seen as away with the fairies.
“President Biden, seen in 2020 as the great hope of the centre, has spent his term pandering to many of the most extreme hard-left causes”
Last month’s midterms were effectively a choice between various Trump tribute acts and a series of hardcore leftwing ideologues. President Biden, seen in 2020 as the great hope of the centre, has spent his term pandering to many of the most extreme hard-left causes. In 2024, the contest will be between either Donald Trump or someone who manages to persuade Republican primary voters that they can have Trump without the baggage; and either a Joe Biden barely capable of saying a sentence coherently, or a candidate bought and paid for by the left ideologues of the party. D:Ream it will not be. Things will only get worse.
No one could seriously want to import such politics into the UK.
