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13 May 2008 11:08 am

Tory Tory Tory

Ross considers the conservative resurgence in Britain:

For American conservatives looking across the pond for inspiration, what's at stake in the current - and perhaps temporary - Tory renaissance has less to do with policy specifics (the shape of U.S. politics more or less ensures that any revived American Right will have to be simultaneously more libertarian and more socially-conservative than Cameron's Tories) than with the broader question of whether Anglo-American conservatives can successfully govern a welfare-state society in an era that isn't characterized by profound, late-Seventies-style disillusionment with the administrative state.

I know enough to know I need to spend time there to figure out what's going on. I'm planning on it. Reihan, who has paid closer attention to Cameronism than I have, defends it ably here. It certainly feels great to have a conservative party that hews to moderate rhetoric, has no real interest in religious fundamentalism and is keen to decentralize power. But maybe my roots are showing. I will note that McCain was Cameron's guest at the Tory Conference - back when McCain was discounted as the GOP nominee. I will also note that Cameron's insistence on being the green party - putting "conserve" back into conservatism - was critical to restoring public confidence. McCain is following Cameron's lead on this.

These are interesting times: signs of saplings in the scorched conservative forest.

(Photo: David Cameron by Peter MacDiarmid/Getty.)

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