Britain’s Floundering Labor Party Is a Warning to U.S Democrats

Writer Toby Buckle says moving to the right on social issues has failed for Britain’s liberals and would also be a disaster for U.S. Democrats.

You can watch this episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon above or by following this show on YouTube or Substack. You can read a transcript here.

Britain’s Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has tacked to the right on immigration and transgender rights, in particular. This strategy was designed to head off the rising popularity of Reform UK, Britain’s far-right party. It hasn’t worked. Polls show Starmer and Labor as increasingly unpopular, and Reform is now Britain’s most popular political party. Toby Buckle, a writer based in the United Kingdom whose pieces have appeared in Liberal Currents and The New Republic, says that Starmer’s failings are a lesson for center-left Democrats who are pushing their party to move right on some social issues. Such an approach, says Buckle, won’t appeal to conservatives but will anger liberal voters and make them harder to rally at election time. The Labor Party and Democrats in the U.S. are better off politically defending progressive social values instead of distancing themselves from them, he argues.

Right Now With Perry Bacon is a twice-weekly show about national politics with a focus on the radicalism of the Trump administration and tactics to combat it. The program, hosted by New Republic staff writer Perry Bacon on Substack, features in-depth discussions with experts and politicians. It goes beyond the daily headlines to explain why things are happening and put them in a broader context.

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