Advice for Republicans From Great Britain
How the U.S. right can effectively challenge socialism.
I had the pleasure of spending an evening in the company of the Adam Smith Institute’s Eamonn Butler at their annual boat party last month. Conversation inevitably turned to the state of the right in both the UK, where they have a chance at power the next election (if you can call Cameron of the right), and in the U.S.
As with the set of interviews I have been doing with leaders of the UK right, I wondered what Butler would do if he were advising the American right on how to bring themselves back from oblivion:
AD: As a leader of a right-of-center/free market think tank that has remained true to its roots despite the left onslaught in the last decade, what advice would you give the right in the U.S. on how to deal with the socialist administration of President Obama?
EB: You have to stick to your principles. You might have to dress them up in different language, and focus on some new areas, but you will never make progress by backtracking or compromising all the time. My own view is that the Obama machine was a great campaign machine, but not a great policy machine. On economics, its policies seem to be taken from a book on political correctness rather than a book on economics (and definitely not from a book on Austrian School economics). Even if they work out a way of implementing these fuzzy ideas, they will soon be disappointed in the results. I think this administration is already running into the sands of disillusionment on economic policy. That’s about three years ahead of most administrations.
AD: What do you think of the current leadership of the Conservative Party in the UK who look to be in power come next election?
EB: They’re better than a lot of people give them credit for. When the new leader was elected, the Conservatives had been out of office for nearly a decade and were riven with disputes. Nobody knew what the party stood for, and its constant negativity turned off the public. The Conservative brand was thoroughly polluted. The new leader, David Cameron, reckoned he had to rebrand the Conservatives in a big way before people would even listen to them, never mind vote for them. So he started talking about new issues like social inclusion, culture, and the environment, which were not traditional Conservative issue areas (they had focused for years on economic issues). Yes, that introduced some ideas that I would disagree with, but mostly it was window-dressing. The actual policies they are coming up with are not all that bad.
For example, the three big spending ministries are health, education, and welfare. In health they are going back to Mrs. Thatcher’s idea of fund-holding family doctors, who can buy in services from the state-run National Health Service or from private providers. In education, their model is to replace state education with charter schools — which Obama for some odd reason wants to reverse, I’m told. And in welfare, it’s a Wisconsin-style contracting-out of the entire business of getting people off benefits and into work. The language is all touchy-feely, but the policies are pretty sound.
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Andrew Ian Dodge blogs at Dodgeblogium.
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18 Comments
1. syn:Bring US back from oblivion, I’m all for that however just wondering, does the book address how Americans can unplug their eyeballs from Jon Stewart’s anal cavity?
How can Americans read anything if Jon Stewart has a iron-tight hold on them?
Aug 20, 2009 - 3:50 am 2. Howard Mirkin:“EB: There’s an Adam Smith Institute book online called Freedom 101″
As far as I can tell the book is not online and is sold only by amazon.co.uk. The link goes to another PJM page which has no mention of Freedom 101. If there is really a pdf file for freedom, I would like to know where it is.
In addition the link “The Best Book on the Market” goes tio another PJM page which has no mention of this book. No need to p;ost it, but the links in the article should be fixed.
Aug 20, 2009 - 3:53 am 3. tired:“Is there any required reading for budding younger Republicans to advise them on how to deal with socialists?”
Know thy enemy: read Hayek’s “The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism,”
or see the free info to download and understand our system better:
http://fee.org/docs/
Aug 20, 2009 - 5:43 am 4. BackwardsBoy:There are countless examples of the follies of big-government socialist know-it-alls and their negative effects on our standard of living, but the GOP seemingly has no interest in pointing them out. There are direct benefits to having a smaller and less intrusive government that benenfit everyone, but does Michael Steele ever speak of them?
Aug 20, 2009 - 6:14 am 5. Colin:Todays GOP sound and act like a whipped puppy when they should be proudly and strongly promoting American ideals and presenting a roadmap for their implementation. The far left now controls the Democrat party and is failing in ways that were unimaginable just one year ago. While you never want to interrupt your enemy while he is busy defeating himself, you do want to hasten the process whenever possible.
There is really only one quality that Republicans need to display for the American people; strength. Strength in their belief of American values, in American exeptionalism, in American capitalism and in the wisdom of the American people. If they want to get serious about winning elections and taking the country back from the disastrous precipice of socialism, nothing less will do.
EB;”That’s a problem of how the political system works. I would like to see term limits and other initiatives to stop politics from becoming a profession, a career. It should be a service, a calling. The trouble right now is that the political class — politicians, journalists and so on — have their whole lives invested in politics,”
Aug 20, 2009 - 6:15 am 6. venividivici:The man is on the right track,but the Biggest Political Power in the country is the BUREAUCRACY. Once hired they are very difficult to get rid of and they lobby politicians for their own ends. One of my big problems with term limits is that it may give the career bureaucrats more influence on not up to speed newbie politicians. We in Minnesota saw this in 1999. Governor Ventura ran on a libertarian campaign platform and he governed as a creature of the state bureaucracy.
Its time to bring back the spoils system. Elected politicians must be able to fire the help. The Civil Service Reform of the 1880s is a failure.
That’s a problem of how the political system works. I would like to see term limits and other initiatives to stop politics from becoming a profession, a career. It should be a service, a calling. The trouble right now is that the political class — politicians, journalists and so on — have their whole lives invested in politics, so they naturally want and give us more of it. Personally, I’d like to see government so small that nobody would notice if it went on holiday for a month. You can’t do that while the entire career structure of journalists and politicians depends on them expanding the scope of politics more and more.
Ain’t it the truth. I hate politics. The only reason I follow it is because they keep insisting on butting into my life.
Aug 20, 2009 - 6:20 am 7. David W. Lincoln:I find it interesting that the NHS was mentioned. You can expect those who say, “Just a little more power to government, and all will be set right”.
Well, as one who sees the folly of putting too many eggs in a basket, why not hold government entities, such as the public health care system to this standard: what is the most economical way to have a system which matches, or comes close, to what medical science has to say about when a patient receives treatment.
For, I am in favour of government being put in its place. After all, the reason why government
has as much power as it does today is thanks to the 30 years war, differences in interpreting the Bible lead to the realm of the church needing
to be put in its place. Why? Because it over stepped its boundaries.
Now, can’t the same be said about government today?
Aug 20, 2009 - 7:06 am 8. Andrew Ian Dodge:Howard here is the proper link to Freedom 101.
And the ASI can be reached here.
Aug 20, 2009 - 8:03 am 9. theBuckWheat:The bargain that the Socialist State attempts to seduce us with is antithetical to Judaeo-Christian values. When the State offers to make it possible for each of us to live at the expense of others if only they can live at our expense, it not only commits fraud in the inducement, the offer is based on lies, coveting and theft.
For Americans, the offer contrdicts a founding document of US Law: the unalieable right to life and liberty.
The answer is to instruct people on the benefits of liberty and the prosperity that flows from it. Socialism can only divvy up a fixed-size pie. Only liberty can make the pie bigger.
We must have a public debate on a topic that no politician dares bring up: when should a citizen be expected to pay his own way in life and what do we owe to those who cannot?
I will gladly pay for life-saving health care for an indigent person. It is an outrage to force me to pay for his sex-change operation.
Aug 20, 2009 - 9:38 am 10. Andrew Ian Dodge:I will gladly pay for life-saving health care for an indigent person. It is an outrage to force me to pay for his sex-change operation.
Therein lies the rub. I am sure that when the NHS was introduced in the UK (and Canada) none of its inventors would ever have envisioned it would be paying for people to have sex changes, breast implants or have their tattoos removed. It was set up to provide basic care for individuals when the life-span was a heck of a lot shorter.
The NHS has not adapted at all, except for minor tweaks, and can’t handle the load. Even if the UK spent nothing on anything else it would still “not be enough” due to a variety of factors both unforseen & ones that should have been seen a long time ago.
Aug 20, 2009 - 10:08 am 11. Sapwolf:We either continue to drift into socialism and eventually communism, or a civil war develops. Chances are option 1, but the crashing economy can put a wrench into Obama/Pelosi/Reid’s plans at even further government madness.
Aug 20, 2009 - 12:15 pm 12. Phoenix48:EB has it exactly right from his opening statement when recognizing how Cameron executed leadership – principles first. It’s easy now for conservatives to forget how long they were marginalized before Reagan because its such ancient history. Progressive liberals here are not just enraptured by Obama, they actually believe that the country is shifting center-left and its just a matter of Obama and Pelosi gently bringing the public along to where they naturally want to be.
It’s entirely self-delusional on the part of democratic party faithful. Reagan represented a true shift in the political demographics of america – when he entered office less than thirty percent of state gov’s were under conservative rule. When he left it was over 60%.
Obama was campaign dynamite – probably the best planned & executed machine since JFK – and they didn’t even need to cheat w/ACORN on the scale JFK pulled off in Chicago & WV in ‘60. His fundraising alone was so astounding that he was 80% toward (primary & general combined) the first Billion Dollar Baby. AS much as I despise the principles I have to admire the accomplishment.
That didn’t change the fact the guy is a practical novice – despite how charismatic he is. He has demured to Pelosi because she is the true political vet.
It has provided conservatives with an oppertunity hether to not dreamed of given the swooning Obama has enjoyed up until these past few months.
Now it is up to conservatives to provide the kinds of answers governors like Tom Thompson did with welfare reform & Tom Ridgway did cleaning up crony corruption in Pennsylvania. We only had the success of Gingrich’s congress BECAUSE we won plural conservative majorities in the states.
Principles first – execution second. We win back states like Virgina, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina – and peel off a New Jersey or Wisconsin – or dare one believe CALIFORNIA – and we make the gains in 2010 to make 2012 a one term Obama.
It can happen. Thanks for the suggestions Ian.
Aug 20, 2009 - 12:41 pm 13. Jason S:Republicans need to position themselves as the party of energy. Keep America Powered would be a potential slogan. Or Get America Back to Work.
With the looming increase in oil prices, the timing would be perfect now to prepare to start hammering the dems on their windmill pipe dreams that do not include more oil exploration and nuclear for the short and mid-term and a promise to continue to “explore” the more dreamy stuff for the long term. This also merges with the people’s justified belief in Republicans on national security and with the economy due to the people it would put back to work. 3 core issues with one slogan. I hear Axelrod might be able to help on the PR front, for a small fee of course.
Aug 20, 2009 - 3:43 pm 14. tommy gunn:There is something wrong with this guy if he thinks Cameron is some kind of man of the right. The most you can say about UK conservatives is that they tend to be like FDR style democrats. In USA terms UK conservatives are really liberal.
It is unlikely that this guy will unlock any mysteries on free markets from the UK since the USA is about the only place left on earth where there really are free markets.
Bottom line is that I love going to visit the UK, however it is the best example of a failed model at every level. The people surrendered to the state after WWII and again to the EU in a major death spiral for freedom. They are heading down the tubes today-even if the conservatives are in power. Just look at how the boy toy Cameron jumped out to defend the NHS. Give me a break!!
Tommy Gunn
Aug 21, 2009 - 4:31 am 15. Howard Mirkin:On of the reasons that the Republican Party is having so much trouble getting it’s message across is that far too many people are confused by political terminology. Those we call “liberals” today, are pro-Statist. The original liberal concepts are freedom of the individual, free markets, capitalism, and competition under the Rule of Law. Today’s so-called “liberal” is a corruption of the term’s original meaning. One of the main reasons this happened is because academia is infested with Statists. In their arrogance university instructors do not teach true liberalism. They teach utopian ideas that have time and again failed. “Conservative” in many cases is also a misnomer. Most people who today call themselves “conservatives” are in fact “liberals”…the true liberals. They believe in the freedom of the individual to make his own decisions, good or bad based on what the individual sees as in his own best interests. The Statists call this “selfish”. It is not. One’s own best interests includes others; they only exclude those whom the individual decides not to include. That is the freedom of choice.
Aug 21, 2009 - 5:26 am 16. Andrew Ian Dodge:One poster asked about recommended reading. I would recommend the following:
“The Road to Serfdom” and “” , by F. A. Hayek, which was the first book (1944) to clearly show that Statism can only result in the subjugation of the people to the elites running the state. It shows that there is no major difference between Communism, Socilism, and Naziism. They are all tyrannical forms of government that use state control and dissolution of private property ownership. In fact Republicans want to preserve the Constitution, but are amenable to change provided that it is natural change as a result of the efforts of the individual, not dictated by the State.
2. “The Socialist Mentality”, and others by by Ludwig von Mises
3. “Free to Choose”, by Milton Friedman
4. “Capitalism and Freedom”, by Milton Friedman
5. “Liberty and Tyranny”, by Mark Levin
There are plenty of others, these are just some of the more important ones.
Cameron leads a party of the right, even if he seems to not be even the slightest bit right of centrist. However don’t be fooled by the leadership of wet centrists the Conservative Party members are far more akin to Hannan’s way of thinking than Cameron’s.
If you don’t believe me read Centreright and its parent site ConservativeHome. Cameron alas, like McCain et al, is out of touch with his grassroot members.
Aug 21, 2009 - 8:30 am 17. narciso:After a dozen years, a soft Tory government might come into power. The point that Hannan
Aug 21, 2009 - 10:48 am 18. savage24:and Steyn and the two Geralds ,Warner & Baker, make is that National Health Care, ia what makes
any kind of center right administration that much harder. Bevin, Cripps and Beveridge, knew exactly what they were doing between 46-48. Lets not take that path in the first place
Sounds like very good advice. The one thing wrong with it is that the Republican Party only takes advice from their enemies. That’s why we are stuck with Obama!
Aug 22, 2009 - 12:33 pm