[eli_gottlieb]

Getting tankies to crawl out of the woodwork isn't quite the same as revitalizing a democratic socialist party. You can get a certain number of people immediately on your side in left politics just by saying something to the left of all previous electoral candidates for high office -- see, Bernie Sanders in the United States.

Now, I support Sanders and quite like Corbyn minus the Brexit and the antisemitism issues, but they both face a similar challenge: their core support bases aren't actually ideologically coherent, let alone aligned entirely behind the candidates' programs. Lots of leftists basically treat Sanders or Corbyn as beloved old conservative uncles, while insisting that nobody with Sanders' or Corbyn's actual (social democratic to democratic socialist) politics should encouraged within Left politics.