The Labour party in the UK seem to have just been taught this lesson. Under the leadership of Keir Starmer, Labour swerved hard right seeking a moderate position in the face of Boris Johnson’s Conservative gains last election.

Labour got slaughtered yesterday in local elections. To say their loss is historic is to completely understate the situation. The party has imploded.

Plenty of pundits saw it coming. Labour’s traditional liberal and progressive voters just stayed home. They weren’t interested in the small-c conservative soup Starmer was simmering.

Many of my friends in the UK are so disgusted with Labour they say they’ve left the party for good.

This did not have to happen. Labour could have remained staunchly progressive, offering a red-meat diet to voters who crave repudiation of Tory governance.

Democratic politicians in the United States should heed this dire lesson leading up to 2022. Liberal and progressive voters are not going to turn out for weak messages, and they’re not going to turn out for politicians tacking to the right to meet the Republicans.

Obviously, US politics are very different from the UK, but this basic message is pretty universal.