Bernie Sanders' team will be watching Jeremy Corbyn very closely over the next few weeks

There are more similarities than you think between these old white socialists and their right-wing, populist counterparts

Bernie has been endorsed by a number of young Democratic freshmen including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar (Getty Images)

In 2015, something transformative happened on both sides of the Atlantic. Far-left backbencher Jeremy Corbyn was campaigning to become Labour Party leader and self-described socialist (the democratic kind) called Bernie Sanders was emerging as a serious challenger for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Progressive politics as we knew it was changing.

For decades, politicians on both sides of the aisle have sold Americans the idea that anything short of a virtually unregulated financial system is tantamount to “socialism”. Anyone who questions the rampant privatisation of services that are essential to human existence, like healthcare and water, is labelled with the “S” word (and therefore considered dangerous and un-American).

Bernie Sanders changed all that. He didn’t shy away from the S-word: he made a case for its true meaning. The Vermont senator’s first attempt at securing the Democratic nomination might have ended in defeat, but his 2016 run energized the left of the Democratic Party, proving that challenging the Democratic establishment while rejecting “big money” was possible.

In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn’s team were watching closely. Corbyn strategist Steve Howell’s book about the UK’s 2017 general election, Game Changer, discusses what the Labour campaign learned from Sanders. The strategy of holding huge rallies as a way of building momentum was an early adoption. Sanders’ use of what Howell calls “narrative arcs” to spread political messages was the inspiration for Labour’s election slogan: “For the many, not the few.” Like team Corbyn, Sanders has made no secret that he’s been keeping an eye on political events across the pond too. In 2017, he aligned himself with Corbyn and said he was “very impressed” by the Labour leader’s campaigning style.

Importing political ideas from another country can be, as Howell writes, a “hazardous” business. But with 2016’s Brexit vote foreshadowing Trump’s shock election win just a few months later, Americans will be observing the UK’s upcoming election more closely than ever.

Both men once again find themselves running campaigns in close succession, and it is Sanders who will be learning from Corbyn.

Comparisons between Sanders and Corbyn often feel lazy and exaggerated, but there are obvious similarities. Both are older, white, socialist men who have sold themselves as outsiders who oppose the “establishment” of their own parties, but now find themselves front-and-center. Both are idolized by their supporters for speaking “truth to power” and fighting economic inequality. Both opposed the Iraq War. Both have survived after failing at their first attempt to become their nation’s leader.

These perceived similarities, combined with obvious comparisons between their biggest political enemies – Donald Trump and Boris Johnson – present an opportunity for the Vermont senator. So far, the socialist ideology Sanders represents has been relentlessly demonized by Republicans and the right-wing media. But in terms of US politicians, socialism has largely remained a faceless monster, associated primarily with foreign dictators. Sanders himself, America’s most well-known socialist, has been spared the worst up until now. If anything, right-wingers encouraged his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, adopting many of his own attacks against her once she defeated him. This time, those same right-wingers will be watching his most effective moves against Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren for the same reasons.

If Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee, then the Republican ceasefire will end. Corbyn, who has already won the battle for leadership of his own party twice, knows this all too well. A similar shift occurred after 2015 when right-wingers were gleeful at the prospect of him winning the leadership of the Labour Party over more moderate candidates who they assumed were more of an electoral threat. The second he was in the driver’s seat, though, everything changed and he became public enemy number one.

The majority of recent attacks against Corbyn’s political and personal credibility in the UK (or the most consistent ones, at least) now come from right-wing politicians and media outlets. From falsely claiming he’s a communist spy to castigating him for napping on a train, the coverage on Corbyn often verges on character assassination – a well-known tactic of America’s own conservative media.

The Sanders campaign will be watching as socialist Corbyn goes up against a Trump-like Conservative Party leader who was born into wealth and power, armed with the slogan “People before privilege” – a similar “narrative arc” to the Sanders message of “the people vs ‘the billionaire class’”. In the event that Sanders wins the Democratic nomination and becomes the right’s main target, what will the deluge of anti-Corbyn Facebook ads teach his team? What will be the most effective right-wing talking points be? How will Corbyn alter his “narrative arc” as a response to the coordinated and intensely personal attacks that he will inevitably face during the election campaign?

America’s Democratic and Britain’s Labour parties find themselves grappling with similar challenges: a split between “moderates” — or soft capitalists — and the socialist left. The right-wing talking points are also similar: that the left-wingers are economically disastrous, offering voters everything they want “for free”, and trying to subvert the “will of the people” by ignoring a referendum vote or impeaching an elected president. Navigating the growing unease over the US and UK’s long-held support for Israel, while simultaneously confronting antisemitism within their ranks and on the far-right, will be another difficult challenge.

If Jeremy Corbyn is victorious against Boris Johnson on December 12th, it will be one of the strongest indicators that people-powered movements can win the day and that Americans might also finally be ready to back a socialist candidate. But the question remains: Will the Democratic primary give them the chance to vote for one in November 2020?