What should a democracy look like? On the 24th of June, the answer was clear: not like this. With the country split down the middle on a fundamental question of identity, many of the 48 per cent – a good few of them at Cambridge – derided the Leave majority as ignorant/racist/stupid. Undeniably this was condescending and anti-democratic, but surely the referendum wasn’t a rational debate about the pros and cons of the EU? The cry went up that Parliament is sovereign, not the people – we elect MPs to stop the ignorant masses exerting power, was the gist. But these MPs are all the same, everyone hates them, came the reply.

Our democracy is dysfunctional. It lays claim to the popular will while fearing it. We need a new model - one which doesn’t view populism as a dirty word.

Corbyn’s Labour offers a solution: a mass membership of ordinary, politically engaged citizens. Spread out across the country and different ways of life, Labour’s members would campaign for social and environmental justice. Together, they can decide on policy and elect representatives – as tribunes, not delegates. People from disadvantaged backgrounds are prioritised for leadership roles in the fight against racism, sexism, ableism, queerphobia and other forms of oppression. Elections become clashes of visions voted on by engaged citizens with a real stake in society, real community control over energy and utilities, and increased democracy in the workplace. With that responsibility comes engagement, and with engagement comes more responsibility – and a way out of this political alienation.

But how to progress? Labour MPs, for once, have the answer – state power. While we as individuals can fight on one front at a time, the government controls a thousand fronts. Years of activist toil can get a university to divest from fossil fuels or secure an inquiry into a historic injustice; but it is in the state’s power to transition society away from polluting carbon or to tackle structural racism. The state directs society, and dictates the frame of debate.

Yet the Parliamentary Labour Party has still not got it right. Astonishingly, despite successive election defeats resulting from Labour’s insincere embrace of right-wing policies, they have not yet clocked that the age of triangulation is over. If it didn’t reach its nadir with Ed Miliband’s pitiful immigration control mugs, then it sure as hell did with the EU referendum. The inside story of the Remain campaign explains their defeat: the reliance on a discredited ‘centre-ground’ neoliberalism which has destroyed investment, left many communities to wither away, embraced globalised low-wage labour (fostering resentment of ‘immigrants’) and rocketed inequality.

Looking back, Owen Smith is the leader Labour needs for the future

Much of this occurred under Tony Blair. Assimilated into a hated governing class, Labour has lost its sense of purpose. It hasn’t articulated an alternative.  Going even further right on welfare and immigration is no solution at all, nor is the ‘I’ll be whatever you want me to be’ charade of Owen Smith, who has morphed from corporate lobbyist into hardcore socialist. Labour should give up on a mythical centre ground and focus on building a national coalition against inequality, unlocking the potential in each of us – democracy and prosperity.

Labour and the left can only win on a message of hope – an insight the party’s right have failed utterly to grasp. New Labour was originally, believe it or not, a vision of hope. The Conservatives have the backing of military men (always men) who share their worldview, they’ll always be supported by ‘business leaders’ (i.e. multimillionaire bosses) and the right-wing, billionaire-owned media. Labour cannot hope to beat them at their own game, and they would not be worth voting for even if they could. What’s more, the burning question of climate change – already killing cultures, communities and people the world over – demands a radical transformation of society which cannot be countenanced by the ruling class.

The political and economic elite created this sordid mix of inequality, racism and climate catastrophe, they won’t get us out of it – we need to put our faith in people. If we can’t convince this country to vote for a mild-mannered social democrat, then what hope is there? What hope is there if we can’t even try? Green jobs are needed, rent controls are needed, a National Education Service is needed. Our reality is bizarre indeed if this is extremism. Just as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour seeks to invest in people economically, we need to invest our hope in them.

Labour could and should be an activist force leading the fight on junior doctors’ contracts, against fracking, on rising student rents. It should be linking up liberation struggles, sharing its resources. 15 million people in this country don’t vote. Let’s give them a reason to. What’s more, an on-the-ground campaigning force, winning in local communities, can burst the image of a naïve, untrustworthy party presented to it by the media – ordinary, compassionate people, not cackling Trotskyists. With this approach, Labour could truly transform the country, not just alleviate its worst elements.

I’m voting for Corbyn – sorry about that

I believe this is only possible if Jeremy Corbyn wins. Although the leadership candidates’ policy pronouncements are similar, they represent very different futures. Corbyn is the people-powered new politics, backed by hundreds of thousands of members. It would be devastating for him to be defeated after a parliamentary coup launched on spurious grounds, an outrageous attempt to keep him off the ballot and 150,000 new members being denied the vote for no apparent reason – not to mention the smearing of left-wing activists as misogynistic, homophobic Trotskyists. The Parliamentary Labour Party and its allies in the Labour machinery have used all tools available to them to crush an insurgent. If Corbyn loses, that managerialist hangover from New Labour will regain control. That can’t happen.

Varsity recently published an article claiming that Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t exist. But Owen Smith is the true phantom. He is nothing more than Not Corbyn – hardly an inspiring vision. If Smith somehow wins this election, he will drift right in a pirouetting display of triangulation. A demoralised membership could never summon up enthusiasm for Owen Smith, and a less geeky Ed Miliband won’t cut it to the rest of the country. A Smith victory is a victory for There Is No Alternative politics.

This leadership election was not welcome for many, but it has offered the chance for a new democracy to arise. Labour has failed to use its membership, which dwarfs all other political parties combined. But now it’s going to have to. As they lose their grip on power the political elite in this country are embarking on Project Fear 101. Every single effort has been made to eject this threat to the established order – every narrative is twisted to attack him. The hope is to wear down our enthusiasm, to show Corbyn is unelectable by making him unelectable. Let’s elect him again, then harness the power of 500,000 Labour members.

We must re-elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader, not because of some personality cult but because of what he represents. In this terrifying age of mass drought, rising fascism and Brexit Britain, we need to have faith in people. In this country we have the vote, but we’ve never had true power of the people. It’s time to give it a try.