Blairism destroyed Labour’s grassroots along with its ideology.
Evidence
The illusion of Blairism is that it was an overcoming of the defeats of the 1980s rather than their final consequence. It was a post-traumatic normalisation of catastrophe, not any sort of new dawn. Its legacy is organisational as much as ideological: a Labour Party that napalmed its grassroots (contempt for, and fear of the working class being a signature element of Blair’s rendition of populism) and which now beams down policy and PR from some rarefied Thick Of It Oxford PPE helicarrier circling miles above earth. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1775
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Relates to broader themes about how parties abandon organic class bases — parallel to caste/media-elite arguments about who holds organisational power found in the learned library.
- XREF: connects to: Ideological politics destroys the very constituency the ideology claims to serve — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1070; Party democracy’s erosion destroyed the mediating civil society that stood between citizen and state. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 150; Blairism normalized the 1980s defeat rather than overcoming it (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Blairism won elections by sacrificing the party’s sense of purpose
#corroborates(0.82) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1850 - Ideological politics destroys the very constituency the ideology claims to serve
#exemplifies(0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1070 - Party democracy’s decline also destroyed the intermediary institutions linking citizens to the state
#expands(0.75) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 150 - Party democracy’s erosion destroyed the mediating civil society that stood between citizen and state.
#corroborates(0.74) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 150 - Blairism normalized the 1980s defeat rather than overcoming it
#expands(0.72)