Traditional conservatives no longer have a place in the world -- because conservatives can no longer get along with each other. Glen Pearson writes:
Ronald Brownstein, senior editor of The Atlantic, made a prescient observation in an interview this past week. Speaking not only of American Republicans but conservatives across the globe, Brownstein noted that right-of-centre conservatives are increasingly running out of room in the political world. The rise of extremist ideologies on the Right has taken on more influence, leaving traditional conservatives “with no place to coalesce.”
In such a light, he could just as easily have been describing Canada, India, Australia, Japan, or Germany. Everywhere, it seems, the rise of the angry Right has produced democratic upheaval and an erosion of global partnerships.
In yesterday’s election of a new leader to replace disgraced Boris Johnson, we perhaps have our newest example of conservatism ignoring its historical boundaries. While experienced observers point out that four years of consistent tax increases is hardly a Conservative trait, they also note that Britain’s Conservative government has gone off in directions few would have thought possible after former PMs David Cameron and Theresa May resigned from office.
In a party election that ended up being tighter than predicted, Liz Truss was able to capture only 57% of the vote in the leadership contest – the lowest vote share among members since the current system of electing Tory leaders was first introduced. Truss was disappointed, hoping for “more support,” but nevertheless gave a rousing victory speech.
Following Johnson’s tumultuous rule, traditional Conservatives are finding themselves exactly where Brownstein described: with no place to land. How else to explain the almost 20% of card-carrying party members who didn’t vote? Having endured a bad run with Johnson, they just couldn’t take a liking to Truss or her main rival, Rishi Sunak. Truss’s praise of her “friend” Boris during her acceptance speech likely didn’t help. Her claim that Johnson was “admired from Kyiv to Carlisle” seemed odd, considering that he had lost Carlisle in the most recent election. That she completely ignored Sunak on the way to the podium likely doesn’t bode well for cooperation in the coming months. Today, Truss visits Queen Elizabeth and then she will assume office.
As the UK reels from one escapade to another, the Conservative party is facing the unthinkable conclusion that it might be incapable of governing itself. The Guardian had already concluded that the country was no longer manageable under Tory rule. The New Statesman had previously published an article with the revealing title, The Closing of the Conservative Mind: Politics and the Art of War.
Not just in the UK, but in all places where modern conservatism has taken hold, politics has returned to Hobbes' state of nature. Conservatives live in a world where there is a perpetual war of all against all.
Image: Middle East Eye
12 comments:
It's no secret that conservatives are being targeted with effective fascist propaganda through social media. So, a shorter version of this article could read, "traditional right-of-centre conservatives are increasingly running out of room in the political world as their parties are taken over by fascists." Unfortunately, the corporate media frown at the word "fascist," even when used by the US president, and the public remains ill-prepared to address the threat.
Cap
There are all kinds of folks who refuse to call the situation by its real name, Cap.
Britain seems in particularly dire straits. Truss appears to have virtually zero brainpower, spouting the usual Con rhetoric about reducing taxes. Well, if you don't make much money, you don't pay much in the way of taxes in the first place, so a cut is inconsequential to the average household budget.
Meanwhile, electricity prices are set to more than triple in the next six months, and it has little to do with actual production costs, but in charging the marginal cost of an extra kWh produced by the most expensive newly-purchased fuel, natural gas, to all the kwh produced! The EU isn't much different. So all the producers get paid the new price even though their overall costs are a blend of existing long term fuel supply costs and new supply costs that are indeed very high. But the latter apply only to at most 20% of the total generation costs. Can you spell "windfall profits"?
It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of since marginal cost pricing was decisively rejected by Ontario Hydro back in 1980, and to which the other provincial utilities agreed. Consultants were everywhere in those days pushing this marginal cost pricing nonsense as being economically efficient. As I spent over 20 years in the metering and rate design business from 1975 on, I went to many conferences and heard all the hokum that was eventually rejected, thank goodness.
Truss herself doesn't have the brainpower of an intelligent newt; her party trick is literally mental arithmetic, not the understanding of complex issues. A complete dolt, in other words, and a typical modern Con bereft of the slightest sympathy for the majority of her fellow citizens. Spouting worn Con slogans is not governance.
I predict absolute chaos in the next six months in the UK. Land of my birth and now run by right wing idiots of the neoliberal persuasion. However, it is quite possible that Poilievre is even dumber than Truss, so be on guard.
The way the West has run the war against Russia via Ukraine with its ultra right wing government is also sad. I recommend progressives read the nakedcapitalism.com website out of the US, where real and intelligent progressives, not mere Dem party hacks, look at the world throuigh a sensible lens. And where intelligent and informed comments are the norm, not the exception. Their Covid and political coverage are a reminder that there are actually intelligent thoughtful people still extant in the USA. Unfortunately, just not that many.
Bill Malcolm
Thanks for the suggestion, Bill. Conservatives have become brainless. It's quite remarkable.
there doesn;t appear to be many true Conservatives in Conservative parties. The new British Conservative leader is talking about reducing taxes. Great idea for those who pay taxes and not so great for the government which is required to provide services to citizens. Truss is preparing to defund government. that ought to work well for their national health care plan. It will certainly help people who are homeless, etc. Basically the poor will get less services and the rich will receive more money at the expense of the poor or working middle class.
At the rate things are going in Britain, things will not turn out well. It may well wind up looking like it did after WW II. Hope the Labour Party has some better ideas, but I'm not hopeful
This is an old story, e.a.f. But Conservatives refuse to learn the lessons it teaches.
I had a twitter exchange with a British Docu Photographer, Curator & Archivist the other day. He was asking for recommendations on cameras to document the eventual upcoming riots. I suggested a key criteria was how immersed he intended to be ? Might there be horses deployed, truncheons etc.. tear gas, water guns, beanbag or rubber bullets, possible imprisonment.. We got it sorted out to send shots via wireless from a waterproof & shockproof camera to persons not in the fray, plus record to a camera card easily hidden, though the camera would likely be confiscated upon arrest or even torn from his hands in the crush etc, so a wrist strap utilizing velcro, ideally a helmet mounted GoPro waterproof for shooting & wireless delivery.. knee & shin pads, gloves with fingers cut off & two pairs of swimmers goggles
He knows soccer hooligan riots, know that a PRESS vest can be a problem or a solution - no guarantee
I thought later just how crazy it likely becomes.. after the clown & sneering toff named Boris, Britain gets an arrogant simpleton who’s anointed PM. It’s reminding me of Charles Dickens.. or a variation called Game of Drones, not Game of Thrones. They still hand out peerages & titles like Lord So & So of Belvedere there I believe.. 🦎
It sounds like the Brits know their future is dark, sal.
According to a first cousin living in a beautiful part of England, he has it all pegged just as every comment written about this blog has. Having been born and lived in England during the time of Thatcher, life has for the Brits evolved from that time to now where the rich enjoy life and the poor forgotten and considered a problem. This stems from the upper echelons who had the money to graduate from a top class school. This does not mean they have the ability to think. While living in England, working for a printing firm, many people I met, the second question they would ask was, “what school did you attend in Canada”. As if the school name would bolster me to the heights of Nobility. That is one of the main problems in Britain. The road to fascism is built on wanting to wear a crown, making obscene amounts of money, and people thinking they are better than any one else. That they are the smartest person in any room. Educated Canadians, educated Canada; Healthy Canadians, healthy Canada; Employed Canadians, Employed Canada…..for we are heading into the same fascist attitudes in this country as any other country, with people who consider themselves Conservatives and are promoting their agenda, and also allocating neoliberalism, rather than putting the country first. Anyong
At its root, this is about selfishness, Anyong -- and self-absorption.
@ Bill Malcolm..
Your Brit pension suffered too?
The Brits have suffered the boiling frog syndrome .
Even those that enjoyed the "free" education provided by the governing labour party of the 60's and early seventies have now turned on those that gave them a good education at little to no cost.
They have also forgotten the district nurses that bicycled for home to home to give healthcare.
The list is long, memories short.
Now all they can muster are failing aircraft carriers with second rate F35's whilst singing rule Britannia.
It's all smoke and mirrors .
Lets not let it happen in Canada.
TB
As I wrote to Anyong, TB, selfishness has become quite fashionable.
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