Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Reality Based World
The conservative UK magazine the economist is bemoaning the destruction of the Republican Party in the US by Bush and Rove. What is different about conservatives in America is that they can be rational about it.
Second, America, even if it shifts to the left, will still be a conservative force on the international stage. Mrs Clinton might be portrayed as a communist on talk radio in Kansas, but set her alongside France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron or any other supposed European conservative, and on virtually every significant issue Mrs Clinton is the more right-wing. She also mentions God more often than the average European bishop. As for foreign policy, the main Democratic candidates are equally staunch in their support of Israel; none of them has ruled out attacking Iran; Mr Obama might take a shot at Pakistan; and few of them want to cede power to multilateral organisations.
That about sums things up. The conservatives in England are for gay marriage and acknowledge global warming. Our debate is so twisted in the US over the "conservative vs liberal" paradigm.
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards would be comfortable as Tories. Here we listen to talk about them being radical commie pinkos.
Against the European model, our "mainstream conservatives" are quite radical. Let's not lose sight of this fact.
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