Posted by
Greg England on Saturday, November 08, 2008 7:13:55 PM
A fellow Townhaller, calling themselves AI, has thrown down the gauntlet:
"Guys like Greg England, should be writing about best practices in governing at different levels instead of wasting spewing drivel and posturing."
I would not normally presume to tell US conservatives how to govern.
And due to the fact that it's getting late(it's now 00:18 GMT) I shall be brief.
In the coming months, if Obama turns out to be an unreconstructed socialist after all, then maybe you guys in the USA could do with a UK perspective. After all, us Brits have plenty of experience of socialism:
British Aerospace
British Gas
British Steel
British Oxygen
British Telecom
British Rail
British Leyland
British Petroleum
Not to mention entities such as the National Health Service.
So, if I had to rebuild a US conservative movement from the grassroots I would start with the following:
(1) The US Consitution
(2) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek (here's a link to an unauthorised abridged version)
(3) The 1979 Conservative Party Manifesto
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/displaydocument.asp?docid=110858
Conservatism at its best is pragmatic, but it must have a consistent ideological core, based on the three legs of:
- Social conservatism,
- Fiscal conservatism
- Foreign policy conservatism.
Experiments in compassionate conservatism (George Bush), environmental conservatism (i.e. the Dave Cameron experiment), bipartisan conservatism (John McCain) are all ultimately doomed to failure, because they all attempt to apologise for conservatism. I'm not even sure I understand what neoconservatism is (although I agree with Dennis Prager about the non-existence of the Bush doctrine).
It's not necessary to merge conservatism with liberalism. Liberals will do that for you in government.
From UK history:
Margaret Thatcher was one of our most revolutionary leaders of recent times and even she didn't privatise the NHS.
By the way, the NHS is one of the largest organisations on the planet, with an annual budget of £100 billion, and rising as a percentage of GDP.