Oh dear. Jonah Goldberg has been in Britain and he doesn’t like what he sees. Fair enough, there’s plenty to deplore about the present government. But what Goldberg is most afraid of is that the Republican party might learn something from David Cameron’s Tories. This, it seems, is the very last thing the GOP should do. Because obviously when you’ve spent eight years trashing your own “brand” and suffering a brace of heavy election defeats, the very last thing you should do is look and learn from how conservative parties in the rest of the world are faring. (Insert standard caveat about the real and meaningful differences between American conservatism and its international brethren here.) Here’s Goldberg:
From this side of the Atlantic, the refusal of House Republicans to support Barack Obama’s so-called stimulus plan looks nothing less than Churchillian. Alas, here in Britain, the lesson of compassionate conservatism’s welcome demise remains lost on the Tory leadership.
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