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Suddenly ubiquitous Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has been pushing his reform agenda for the Republican party in what everyone assumes is a trial balloon for his presidential ambitions. Check him out in Politico:
“I would liken it a bit to the transformation of the Tory Party in the U.K. The defeat in ’97, John Major to Tony Blair, after years of strong, conservative rule with Margaret Thatcher setting the mark. They went two or three election cycles without recognizing the issues that the younger citizens in the U.K. really felt strongly about. They were a very narrow party of angry people. And they started branching out through, maybe, taking a second look at the issues of the day, much like we’re going to have to do for the Republican Party, to reconnect with the youth, to reconnect with people of color, to reconnect with different geographies that we have lost.”Of course the leader of that Tory transformation is David Cameron, whose name is often bandied about (mainly by David Brooks) as a model for Republicans. Luckily for you, dear reader, the latest edition of TAP has a fascinating profile of Cameron by James Crabtree. It's a really interesting read, tracing the young conservative leader's attempts to broaden his coalition by reframing conservative ideas for a new generation and challenging Labor on their traditional issues, but it does suggest that at least some of Cameron's tactics would be simply unacceptable to conservative king-makers in the U.S. But if Huntsman is going to succeed in his somewhat quixotic task, this is the model for it, and progressives and conservatives alike would be wise to examine the political lay of the land from our co-linguists across the pond. Read the whole thing.
-- Tim Fernholz
