Posted on 11/03/2004 6:28:21 PM PST by mdittmar
A conservative has just won for a second time, more strongly than four years ago. It is the biggest vote ever cast for a conservative in the history of the world. And that conservative's job is the most important in the world. Where is the British Conservative Party?
(Excerpt) Read more at opinion.telegraph.co.uk ...
Hint to the Tories: conservative voters don't vote for pussies.
As an AMERICAN who was schooled in the UK as a young man before and during Thatcher - my 2 cents is that the Tories need to refashion themselves after the republican party of Ronald Reagan again as Thatcher did. Since Lady Thatcher's retirement the Tories have slipped back into their country club aristocratic blather. European "conservatives" are not truly free market advocates, individual rights advocates, etc. Just my 2 cents.
"First, Mr Bush may not be intellectual, but he is not stupid. Second, the American people are not stupid, either: whether or not you agree with their choice, it is based on reasoned thought just as much as that of any electorate. Third, the campaign was not a battle between independent-minded, modern people and "the religious Right". Fourth, the Republican Party is properly organised, and it taps into a strong conservative culture."
The Tories have screwed themselves by being insufficiently opposed to the EU and opposing Blair on the Iraq War. This is a Kerry nuance approach on the former and a Pat Buchanan approach on the latter. Won't win a plurality, let alone a majority.
The problem for the Tories is that the UK is significantly to the left of the US.
However,if they don't make the case for conservatism then they can't shift were the center of the British electorate.
Another excellent article.
and in a few years it won't matter because the UK will be nothing more than a province of the EU
CORRECTION: Bush got more votes than any President in history period.
"Hint to the Tories: conservative voters don't vote for pussies"
That could not have been said better.
The Tories sold their souls for a mess of pottage when they tossed out Maggie Thatcher in favor of John Major.
It's the same problem with the Canadian conservatives. If you have no principles and never say anything without publicly sticking your finger in the wind, you will lose everyone's respect. Once lost, it's very hard to recover.
In short, what you have in America is something Britain has lost – a big, respectable, well funded, socially concerned, up-to-date, frequently religious conservative culture that knows how to concert itself politically. This culture is actually growing. Tories should be learning from it, not looking down their noses at it.
"It is the biggest vote ever cast for a conservative in the history of the world."
Wow!
I was thinking about this, how do so many women end up voting for pussies? It just seems to go against what a woman would naturally do.
That about sums it up. Thatcher won consistently because she was tough as nails. Major on the other hand was ineffectual and he lost.
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