How the Right has won in the US

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 09/11/04 | John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

[RockinRight]

From a UK perspective, Rudy is a conservative.

I think, considering the point of view from across the Atlantic, the article isn't that bad. Not 100% accurate but from a guy that presumably hasn't lived in the US for any length of time, its not bad.

[Savage Beast]

It is only the healthy American Heartland--Bush Country, Republican America--that keeps decadent Europe and Democrat America from descending into the Third World.

Remember when California was still ascendant, before it became overwhelmed by Leftists? Now it is overwhelmed by problems--illiteracy, crime, decaying infrastructure, et al.

The Leftists--whose foundation is deceit, deception of others and self-deception, i.e. delusion--refused to acknowledge that socialist policies and the importation of Third World immigrants past a critical point would reduce California to Third World condition.

They still refuse to acknowledge it.

To quote Hollywood, California:

"Never underestimate the power of denial."
Alan Ball
American Beauty

[Morgan's Raider]

Twice as many Americans describe themselves as ‘conservatives’ as describe themselves as ‘liberals’.

This is a relative figure. Most liberals refuse to admit it. Neobolsheviks like Eric Alterman and Paul Krugman think they are "middle of the road" and anybody to the right of Stalin is some kind of raving right-wing nutcase.

[MNnice]

"Well my question is simply; when is this supposed to actually start happening? Hispanics may vote for the ban on gay marriage in California, but it doesn't stop them from voting for ultra-liberal Senators like Barbara Boxer and Feinstein. It doesn't stop them from voting for very liberal Congressmen who do in fact support things like gay marriage."

It'll happen when more Hispanics become middle-class and aren't interested in the party who's primary attraction is the promise to give you free stuff.

 

[sargon]

I think Bush IS like Churchill in some ways.

Churchill was pilloried for his hawkishness, but he was RIGHT.

Davy Crockett said "Be sure you're right, then go ahead."

[Aetius]

Well I'd argue that unending mass immigration makes the movie into the middle-class harder, but anyway, what you say may be true but I still wonder why it is that allegedly socially conservative Catholic Hispanics don't demand that their representatives represent that aspect of their beliefs?

[Poohbah]

The British Conservatives have shrunk to their heartland — the south-east and the shires.

Hobbits are Tories?

[Question_Assumptions]

Ping to read later.

[Jonah Hex]

Hobbits... them's good eatin'.

:-)

[Jonah Hex]

"Hobbit is the fruit of the Shire. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. There's, um, hobbit kebabs, hobbit creole, hobbit gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple hobbit and lemon hobbit, coconut hobbit, pepper hobbit, hobbit soup, hobbit stew, hobbit salad, hobbit and potatoes, hobbit burger, hobbit sandwich... That's, that's about it." - Bubba Orc

Damn... now I'm hungry!

[AmericanChef]

This is a pretty shallow assessment.

[x]

Geography has a lot to do with it. Britain didn't have a large region to develop like the Sunbelt. So British entrepreneurs either move to the Southeast and become stodgy Tories or trendy Blairites, or go North and get swallowed up by blight, depression, and grievances. Like the Democrats in the American South before the 1970s, Labour is the regional party of Britain's North, and if you live and work there, you probably have to adapt to that. Thatcherism and free market enthusiasms die a slow death in either case.

But this election is atypical, first because of the war and second in that it pits a Northeastern Democrat against a Southwestern Republican, who each represent the further edges of their parties. In other elections, sectional divisions haven't been so sharp. Republicans have generally chose Westerners or Middle Westerners, and Democrats Southerners or Middle Westerners, so party and ideological divisions are less pronounced, so at least one candidate is well positioned to play down ideological divisions and pick up moderate voters.

[narby]

Why have the American Republicans been so much more successful at holding on to power than Britain’s Conservatives?

Rush Limbaugh.

[redgolum]

Good point. But there is a vacuum here as well. It is just that we are a newer country and haven't slid down the slope quite as far. If we are lucky we can start climbing back up.