Our prime minister is a fan of reality television, seeing in the X-Factor a metaphor for unlocking talent. So how he must have thrilled to the Democracy Idol show which has gripped America this primary season; catapulting a new star, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, to the brink of a historic presidency.
The contest has demonstrated America’s remarkable capacity for democratic renewal. Whoever wins, John McCain’s vanquishing of the Republican right means that the next US president will know that global warming is real, and that using torture is both wrong and counter-productive. But Obama offers transformative potential. Even if he must ultimately disappoint some of the diverse hopes projected onto him, his inaugural address could begin to repair America’s battered global reputation much more rapidly than has ever seemed possible during these disastrous Bush years.
Britain is not America. As we celebrate sixty years of universal healthcare, that remains a cause unfulfilled for progressive America. But winds of political change do frequently cross the Atlantic. After the Thatcher-Reagan era, the New Democrats deeply influenced New Labour and a generation of European social democrats. Many policy lessons for governing in the global age remain relevant. As politics, this once-modernising formula is badly dated. Hillary Clinton’s Democratic primary defeat brings the long 1990s to a symbolic close.
Clinton was, in part, unlucky. She won over 17 million primary votes. If her ‘inevitability strategy’ fatally underestimated Obama, she was hardly alone in that. She ended a much stronger campaigner than she began, when championing lower-income Americans left out by a boom which never trickled down. (But note too how badly the populist gambit of an August gas tax holiday flopped).
Obama’s success is not simply down to personal charisma, or the symbolic possibility of the first black president. Two important lessons are not about his race or his personality:
Firstly, words matter. New Labour’s response to Mario Cuomo’s dilemma – that ‘we campaign in poetry but govern in prose’ – was too often to manage expectations downwards and make sure we campaigned in prose too. ‘Forward, not back’ and please take care not to wake up the voters. Hope-mongers face their own challenges. A President Obama would need to educate his movement for the longer haul of delivering change through politics.
But the Clinton campaign’s argument that this was to offer ‘false hope’ was deeply conservative. Labour must rediscover its sense of mission. Only by standing proudly for our cause of a fairer Britain, and what government must do to make it possible, could Labour make a fight of the next election.
Second, inspiration needs organisation. Obama’s bottom-up movement out-organised a formidable political machine. The lessons go much deeper than fundraising. This was a revolution in political mobilisation. Obama has brought a new cohort of younger activists and voters into politics because he was prepared to let go and trust supporters with the power and tools to organise on his behalf.
As David Lammy argued in his recent Fabian lecture, this is light years away from the way we do politics here. The spectre of past divisions makes the instinct to control paramount. So our institutions do much to sap political energy and boil off hope. As the Fabian Society’s Facing Out pamphlet advocated, much lower barriers to entry and an openness to internal pluralism are essential for the Labour party to be part of a broader campaigning progressive movement.
This would be to turn the culture of our party politics inside out. This may be too much to ask. If so, the US election, like the much missed West Wing, would offer nothing more than a shot of political escapism, an idle reverie amidst the deepening Westminster gloom. Yet we know that Labour has a mission and a soul. Might we even now rediscover the audacity to hope?
I agreed with most of the writer opinion, if Labour want to win next election, it must rediscover its sense of mission.
Their model must be forward looking, there are dangers in looking backward, pass glory, and that is exactly what many of the cabinet Minister are doing. The only thing they are doing is to response to criticism from the opposition or the media. No vision or sense of direction.
I am sick of listening to most Labour Minister, how on earth can Labour loss contact with the electorate, the people that voted them to power.
Labour Minister is now talking as when they create electorate, forgot that each one of them are voter to power because people believe that labour will protect their interest.
I always vote Labour I find it hard to see how we can win next election with characteristics of this Cabinet and as the writer said Labour must standing proudly for our cause of a fairer Britain, and what government must do to make it possible, could Labour make a fight of the next election.
It must do what Obama did by bringing in new cohort of younger activists and voters into politics. Miracle can happen but with message of hope for the needy.
Two things are probably true. The American political system is a long way from how things happen here, but it is also true that there are things we can learn from the Obama campaign.
What Obama has successfully done is to set out a vision for the future expressed in a way that resonates with millions of American voters. It is a clear and positive vision of hope which has attracted a new younger audience and at the same time has rejuvenated many people who felt trapped by deeply conservative, moribund, yet powerful political and social institutions.
His personal charisma is, of course, also a significant factor in his success. His clear and strong leadership allied to an inclusive approach have also been very important. Perhaps most telling of all has been the trust that he has placed in his supporters, devolving real decision making powers to them and trusting that the outcomes would be good for him and his campaign. The strong organisation that has emerged and the results they have achieved show that he was right to put his faith in those who wish him well.
How much there is to gain from looking at what the Obama campaign has achieved, and the contrast with the way our Party and Government works could not be clearer.
There are of course dangers for the Obama approach in our system.
Is this sort of Presidential style really suited to our politics? Won’t it lead to policy on the hoof? Won’t it risk further alienating the party in government from its membership, the Unions, already disgruntled Public Sector workers and other natural allies? Won’t it further undermine Cabinet led government?
What happens once we are in government and we have to deliver the vision we have so compellingly articulated? Isn’t that exactly the mistake New Labour made in the early days? Doesn’t it risk the sort of electoral meltdown Labour is facing now? Obama has never been tested in government, how do we know that the approach that has worked so well in seeking Office will sustain him once he is actually in Office?
All of these and other comments are fair and need to be taken into consideration, but does this mean we have to give in to the counsel of despair, to focus our efforts our attentions on managing out hope and dampening expectations? This will not persuade people that we are worth supporting.
I would rather see Labour working with our supporters and allies to set out in clear language a vision for the future of Britain, a fair inclusive and prosperous country, sure of it’s place in the world. A Labour Party that trusts its members, allies and supporters and works with them to develop and communicate the vision. It may alienate the deeply conservative, the cynical or those fearful of change, but it will give us something to campaign for and to believe in. Perhaps I am being naïve, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.