Mimi wrote:
I don't know, Cavey. I don't know that I could feel confident in the overall success of my own schadenfreude-seeking to actively want to see elected someone that I was vehemently opposed to (or felt to be a clown, or the worst possible choice for the opposition according to my own sensibilities).
Leaving off the reverse situation with the Conservatives, I'll expand it to a party that I disagree with even more, and say, I don't know, UKIP.
I can't imagine hoping gleefully that UKIP would elect as party head someone who I thought would be absolutely at odds with what was right for the country and humanist values, even more than the gurning clown that is Farage. Let's take the party racism for example. Lots of UKIP supporters and party members argue that the party is not racist. Whatever. But I cannot imagine, if seeking a new leader, cheering on the prospect of a guy that was an out and out racist and bigot, flat in the face of the public, chanting racist slogans because I thought that election to the head of the party would cause the party to slip into insignificance.
For a start, what if I was wrong, and actually it just gave the 'more racist people than you realise' a confidence to crawl out of their louse holes and actively support what was starting to be seen as one of the larger parties?
Secondly, it's still now providing this horrible man a larger stage, more coverage, greater media presence for both him and his twisted values. I couldn't sit back and laugh at the eventual demise of the party as it implodes, much as I'd like to see it disappear and leave nothing but a hole of failure in its wake, as I would be so worried that actually, this party of people who like to say they are 'not really' racist, and the supporters who like to think that they are 'not really' racist take in the increased rhetoric and more explicitly stated views that slowly creep into the not really racists until yes, they are a bit racist, or, you know racist, and this time actually admit it.
Hmm, I think I know what you mean, Meems, and it's with some shame on my part (as I've said, schadenfreude, not the most pleasant of human emotions and if I say so myself, not a characteristic I'd normally indulge in), that I do confess to wanting Corbyn to win because if he does, Labour are finished.
My justification, such as it is, is that I truly believe, rightly or wrongly, that Labour has been a disaster for the people of this country, most especially ordinary people like you, me, everyone else here. I'm not proposing to trot out all (or any) of my reasons for this earnestly held belief, people have heard enough of it these last 10 years, I think they know where I'm coming from by now.
Logically, therefore, if you believe something to be utterly malign in nature (even if only inadvertently so), you want to see it utterly destroyed, by whatever means that are available - including said destruction as wrought by itself (so much the better in fact; they do all the heavy lifting needed and no damaging fall out to deal with). I've long said that Labour utterly lacks a coherent political ideology; its front benches are devoid of talent; it has, for all intents and purposes been a vehicle, cynically used, to obtain political power, often on entirely false pretences (again, IMO). So then, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that they find themselves in a situation where even
they don't know what they stand for anymore, for whom they stand for and, moreover, they have no credible options in terms of who's now going to lead them? Surely this whole, sorry picture is indicative and demonstrative of the utter mess they've got themselves into since the "New Labour" project, beyond anything that I or anyone could say, or needs to say. The evidence is before our very eyes.
Their options now range from 'terrible' to 'self destruct', and I reckon (and hope) they're going to choose the latter.
People will laugh when I say this, but as an old school "Patrician Tory" (even more left wing than a "One Nation Tory"; I'm like some relic from the Fifties in more ways than one
), but I actually believe that the best possible chance for 'ordinary people' are socially responsible right of centre politics.
Without wishing to sound patronising to anyone, I do believe that Labour voters and most politicians are well-meaning (unlike, say, UKIP and their hard core supporters IMO). Shit, most of my friends are Curio types (
), I can't think offhand of one Tory among them. Lefties are very nice people!
At the end of the day though, being a lovely, well-meaning person butters no parsnips if you're
wrong (and in a position to execute said wrong-headed policies). It's a tired old cliche I know, but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions etc.
Don't know if this makes much sense.
Of course, if Labour really does shake itself to pieces and it fragments into multiple smaller parties, as I now fully expect it to do, it's possible that one or more of these remnants may well be worse than it was. Frankly, I'd take that chance, though, because even if that were the case, we'd be talking two or more entities starting from scratch, as opposed to a single, long-established party that could be elected into power within the short term. Thereby, allowing a Tory majority government to persist for a generation.