Tom Harris has written a very interesting post asking why do the Tories support the Republicans?
I know that Iain Dale supported David Davis for the Conservative party leadership and that Davis was seen as socially conservative compared to Cameron but Harris's point is well made.
Perhaps, Drew Westen is right and it does come down to language and emotion.
If Sarah Palin was described as a moral dictator instead of a social conservative would there still be sympathy for her views on creationism, sexual abstinence before marriage, denial of condoms in countries ravished by AIDS and denial of abortion to women raped, in some cases by relatives? And if those aren't her views I apologise now but as far as I can tell they are.
Saturday, 6 September 2008
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4 comments:
You can equally ask why so many LibDems support the Democrats.
True, both parties are very broad coalitions (the Republicans are not all like McCain and Palin, although that ugly, imperialistic tendency is in the ascendancy - it is a tendency which owes a lot to Clinton by the way).
The Democrats are far closer to Labour than the LibDems. True, the metropolitan Democrats are more likely to be socially liberal (rural Democrats are still likely to be racist however - look at the reaction to Obama in Appalacia for evidence of that), but the party is one of centralisation and interventionist economics not that much different from the Republicans.
Both parties are moribund, big government anti-liberals.
All true. There are some Republicans who are far more liberal, in the British sense, than Democrats and some Democrats who are close to British liberals. When I was at university there was a Tory MP who was a visiting lecturer and he was one of the greenest MPs in the House at the time. Politics isn't simple.
You might as well ask why any individual joins a political party, given that a party manifesto can't be expected to match 100% with the views of many, if anyone.
Taking myself and the Liberal Democrats as a handy example: although I support the vast majority of our party's policies, I can find views and actions taken in the name of the Lib Dems among other members which appall me (eg Tom Brake's ten minute rule bill on banning the sale of cannabis seeds - for me, bansturbation should stay with the other two paternalistic parties where it belongs). I can also find areas of official policy that don't match my instincts (eg Lords Reform really doesn't groove my truffles for reasons I've not yet had the brass ovaries to blog about). But I'm still here and still feel that I belong here, more than anywhere else on the party spectrum today.
Generally speaking, I see a lot of attitudes held in common between the GOP and the tories. Tax cutting, a leniency towards businesses over individuals, a history of suppressing homosexuals and women which they are only now starting to address because it has become so unpalatable, a tendency to feel that matters of personal choice should be legislated for by those who know better (namely themselves) - I could go on and on.
I think I find less surprise in Tories supporting Republicans than I do in the fact that neither party seems to have trouble attracting members despite some truly odious attitudes displayed therein. It puts a dent in my faith in humanity when I think about it too hard.
Steph
Without wanting to sound as though I agree with everyone, I agree with you too.
It was Tom Harris who asked the question of course, not me. But there are some liberal Republicans as well as the ones you describe. For me the question is how can the liberal Republicans stay in a party with people who have views they must find hard to stomach.
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