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Fun story!
Even though it is sometimes tempting, I try to avoid making sweeping statements about US / UK parallels as, while I know a bit about the UK end from having been active in the labour party for a few years, I don't have any first hand knowledge of the US.
I welcome insights from people who do have first hand experience of both, though!
frank9755
Back in 1992 when I was running numbers for Ross Perot we had quite a few disaffected Labour party volunteers come over to help. As the only 'limey' on the team it was up to me to take them under my wing. I soon realised that ideology was only part of the attraction. Some simply wanted to meet Jonny Cash or Kirstie Alley or Steve Martin or Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson or Kris Kristofferson who had all recently endorsed Perot. (I had to explain to Ross who some of these people were since his taste in music was heavily skewed to Death Metal). Some had him confused with Ross from Friends. The point is the differences between British and US politics run much deeper than some ex-Militant wannabe pronouncing your candidate's name to rhyme with parrot. We'd be driving the battle bus down a rural road in Ohio and the driver would be told by one of the UK aids to take the next left and Ross would insist we go right and then the bus would simply plow straight ahead through a corn field. As a metaphor it could hardly be bettered.