From a UK Conservative, Advice for the U.S.
Second, find new ways to articulate these old truths. The internet and the democratization of opinion make the expression of these ideals possible in new and exciting ways. So use the internet to make your point — politely and respectfully — as my friend Daniel Hannan did so successfully on YouTube against Gordon Brown.
Third, remain self-aware. Ask yourself each day why it was that the Republicans lost the way they did. What is it about you that explains why folks voted for the other guy? Perhaps it was big government Republicanism, more than Mr. Obama, which explains why you’ve ended up with big government Democrats running the show?
AD: Would you recommend that the Republican Party in the U.S. follow the Tories or adopt something different?
DC: I think conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have a job to do in redefining themselves.
The 1980s conservative agenda right across the Anglosphere could be defined as decentralizing control of the economy — supply-side deregulation, privatization, etc.
The new agenda for conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic must be to decentralize control over politics and public services.
Republicans in the U.S. and British Conservatives have tended to think in terms of gaining control of the machinery of the state in order to achieve conservative ends. It can’t be done. There is a reason that all those federal agencies in the U.S. — or Whitehall quangos, we call them — end up doing left-wing things. It is in the nature of big bureaucracy to impose leftist solutions.
Direct democracy and open source politics are the tools that we must adopt in order to recalibrate the architecture of government. This new radicalism is vital if we are to free our societies from the slow, triumphal march of the left through our institutions and public life.
AD: As the author of the Amazon hit The Plan with internet star of the right Dan Hannan, do you feel that the right in the UK is “going your way?”
DC: I’m delighted that so many of the ideas we set out with in The Plan have now been taken up by David Cameron and the Conservatives. Our proposals for open primaries and open source politics are now party policy. Ditto the proposals we made on radical localism, constitutional, and political reform. Indeed, David’s Milton/Keynes speech borrowed heavily from the book — both in ideas and in terms of text.
But the book hasn’t just influenced the Conservatives in Westminster. As a print-on-demand publication, the book has managed to reach an extraordinarily wide audience and a year on continues to sell thousands.
AD: Do you think the “move to the right” EU-wide is a reason for optimism?
DC: What “move to the right’’ within the EU? I’ve not noticed.
Many right-wing parties in Europe are simply not free market when it comes to the economy or trade. Alas, too many center-right parties in Europe remain authoritarian and wedded to the idea of state intervention.
I see very little cause for optimism when I look at the EU. The centralist, top-down structures remain firmly rooted in place. While China and India decentralize and prosper, western Europe continues to bury herself in an avalanche of excessive taxation and regulation.
Many thanks to Douglas for taking time out of his holiday to share his views with us.
Indeed American success is no accident. It is also what has provided cushy, secure life for the current administration that seeks to destroy our form of government from within and destroy the very way of life that ever made such success possible.
The leftists talk of utopia and the perfection of man while their very thoughts and action confirm that even in the moat prosperous nation in the history of the Earth, nothing is too good for man to destroy when delusions run wild and balance is pitched out with the bathwater.
“While China and India decentralize and prosper, western Europe continues to bury herself in an avalanche of excessive taxation and regulation.”
Replace “western Europe” with “the United States”.
That would make our “progressive” Euro-wannabes happy, yes?
Sir:
Always fun and respectful to hear from so called “UK Conservattives” but you rarely ever talk to true conservatives who are even close to what we call would call “conservative” in the USA. What am I talking about?
Cameron and others are always tip toeing around the EU issue. They are terrified of trying to rectify this “train wreck” insidious takeover of domestic national governments by one of the faceless undemocrat idiots in Brussels who are out of control and non-accountable to anyone. Most of the time like Hannan they may be members of the EU as MEPs and suck down big salaries and expense accounts even as they profess their conservative anti big government beliefs. Secretly they don’t want this gravey train to go away even though the EU is an enemy of democracy, representative government, and true conservative values. You will not see true change in the UK or Europe until their peoples rise up and leave the EU. The reason is simple. Most to the day to day laws today come from Brussels. Just ask the experts. All the Parliment does is rubber stamp EU directives which now control the Courts, immigrant laws, health and safety, environmental wackoism like ” wheely bin collections”, gay rights agendas, and what vegetables or meat products can be produced and sold in super markets. Believe me if this kind of facism happened in America, we would have a revolution in a matter of hours. However the people are increasingly docile, increasingly dumbed down by the BBC in particular and media in general, increasingly dazed and confused, and worn down by the ever vigilent euro crat who want to perserve this socialist train wreck which is leading Europe and the UK into a modern “dark ages”. Until you hear someone speak honestly about this, there is not a chance of any real change in the UK. Why not ask this question to your so called conservative UK pundits. Most of them are clueless and enjoy their day in the sun of the USA media as “experts” on conservativatism when in reality they are part of the problem. Bear in mind that most of these people really have liberal tendencies like being “green”, believing in “global warming”, love the NHS, love the BBC, love the idea of their “so called sophisticated non-nattionalistic bland statism, love their pacifism, love the loss of their UK traditional UK values and I could go on. You call this conservatism?
Most humbly and wishing the above was not true (because I have many English friends)
Tommy Gunn
…or, in other words, its about time you stupid republicans started acting more like libertarians.
That phenomenon isn’t only taking place in Europe, but also in Canada.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Presented by
Is the country’s most conservative city dumping the Tories?
Adam Daifallah, National Post
The beginnings of a political shift may have taken root Monday night in Alberta — and its implications could have far-reaching consequences for the political right in this country.
A heretofore fringe political party, the Wildrose Alliance, won a byelection in Calgary, taking a seat the Alberta Progressive Conservatives had held for 38 straight years. The winner, Paul Hinman, defeated a well-known city councillor running for the Tories. And the Tory candidate didn’t just lose– she finished a distant third.
That a governing party was rebuked by way of a byelection loss is not a significant story in itself; it happens all the time, and the party usually recovers. The Alberta Tories are a good example: In 2007, the seat vacated by Ralph Klein upon his retirement was plucked away by the Liberals, but the Conservatives reclaimed that seat, too, in the 2008 general election.
In 2004, Hinman won election to the Alberta legislature running under the banner of the Alberta Alliance, one of the two parties that folded to create the Wildrose Alliance. The Conservatives reclaimed the seat in the 2008 general election.
Here’s what’s different this time: The Alberta Conservatives, who have governed the province uninterrupted since 1971, look tired, complacent and vulnerable like never before. To finish in third place, behind the normally irrelevant Liberals, in a Calgary riding is a serious embarrassment.
Alberta is Canada’s most conservative province; Calgary the country’s most conservative big city. This fact partly explains the loss: Ed Stelmach’s Tories have abandoned any semblance of conservatism. (One could argue that conservatism in Alberta was abandoned after Ralph Klein’s first term as premier, but I digress.) Despite announcing plans to cut spending, the Tories still plan to run a deficit of about $7-billion this year. There’s discontent with a perceived lack of leadership from the Premier on a number of issues.
It’s not all Stelmach’s fault, mind you. The province is starved for cash as a result of the tumbling price of oil and natural gas. But Stelmach’s less-than-inspiring performance has even members of his own party privately grumbling.
Here’s what else is different: the Wildrose Alliance is in the midst of
a hotly contested leadership race. Depending on who they pick, they could position themselves as a clear, mainstream conservative alternative to the Tories come the next general election.
One of the leadership contenders is Danielle Smith, a media savvy libertarian who would give the party instant credibility as Alberta’s true conservative option. She is a political veteran who has toiled in the often lonely trenches of the Canadian conservative movement for years. Formerly the host of a national public affairs program, she would keep the party focused on economic issues — Stelmach’s greatest weakness — and stay away from thorny social issues.
There is a clear constituency for a fiscally conservative message in Alberta at present — not just due to Stelmach, but also because of what’s happening in Ottawa. As standard bearer for conservatives’ sense of discontent, Smith would instantly become the darling of the Canadian right and make the Wildrose Alliance a serious challenger for power.
Every few generations, Alberta politics undergoes a political realignment. After 36 years in power, Social Credit was replaced by Peter Lougheed and the Progressive Conservatives. The Tories have governed uninterrupted since 1971.
The PCs have been remarkably resilient, surviving several lacklustre periods in power, particularly under Don Getty and in Ralph Klein’s later years. Unless the Tories deliberately alter their course, however, they could go the way of the Socreds. The old guard that controls the party has still not heard the message that things must substantively change. If they don’t get that message quickly,
Monday’s byelection could be a harbinger of what is to come.
adam@daifallah.com
We have to deal with our situation in Washington.
The marxist Progressives in our Government act with impunity in their quest. What is their quest?
In Healthcare – why do they want control of our bodies and why do they wish to import policies demonstrated in other countries to be personally and financially destructive?
In Energy – why do they want control of carbon, a fundamental component of every compound in commerce including transpo fuel, electricity, food and all other consumer goods?
In National Security – why do they persistently attack to undermine Defense, Intelligence and Anti-Terror policy?
In Environmental Issues – why do they monetize and create legislation over every blade of grass, every cricket and every molecule of atmosphere?
In Government – why do they attempt to concentrate political and legislative power away from the individual and the community and toward the State and Federal Government, while growing government and its beauracracy to an unprecedented scale and size with reach into every corner of our person and communities.
In Spending / Deficit Creation – why are so many States in deep deficit, the Federal Govt in terminal velocity of spending with incalculable debt which is impossible to pay off?
In Justice – why the vigorous defense of the terrorists interred in Guantanamo, and the release of the photos of our military defenders and guardians to the terror networks in the on-going fight against the Jihadist’s?
When you begin to answer these questions, you will be well on your way to the realization of the threat they are to our country, our culture, our survival going forward