Earlier this week Ben Rogers noted Mike Gerson's Heroic Conservatism book. Gerson isn't the only former Bush speechwriter to be discussing the future of conservatism. David Frum is also making a major contribution with his book, Comeback. Mona Charen summarises some of the key recommendations in a piece for National Review Online:
- "A carbon tax. That’s right. To discourage the use of gas and oil and to fund more tax breaks for young families.
- Cut the inheritance, corporate, capital gains and dividend taxes to zero to encourage wealth creation. Modify an idea from Bill Clinton and permit “USA accounts” within Social Security that would permit even minimum wage workers to save a small fortune. Frum runs the numbers: “That should be our conservative and Republican promise to American workers: ‘Every American a millionaire by age sixty-seven!’“
- Reform the nation’s scandalous prisons. Conservatives put all those people behind bars to make the rest of us safe, Frum argues, but it is intolerable that there are 240,000 prison rapes yearly (compared with 90,000 rapes in the larger society).
- Revive conservation and create “green conservatism.”
- Negotiate with Iran, sure, but resolve to deny nuclear weapons to them, whatever it takes.
- Limit immigration to the skilled, and close our doors to radical Islamists, even if they have Ph.D.s."
Frum has been a critic of Cameroonian Conservatism but it's interesting that he favours a bolder version of George Osborne's 'green taxes up, family taxes down' approach.
In a recent Times column - headlined All change: The Right knows it's wrong - Daniel Finkelstein welcomed Frum's analysis - not least because of Frum's status as "one of the most important Republican intellectuals": "Other conservatives (Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks) have called for change, but none with Frum's credentials on the Right. The publication of this new book is therefore a landmark."
It is clear that the Right is changing, as Danny suggests, and that, internationally, we can learn from each other. Some common changes include (1) a greater awareness that most middle class voters support government programmes; (2) a greater emphasis on the environment; (3) a concern for poverty at home and abroad; and (4) a greater respect for personal lifestyle choices insofar as they don't hurt children and society.
Danny goes too far, however, in wanting to change the right into something akin to his former party, the SDP.
Some familar issues will remain potent for the right. The immigration issue for example is of growing importance in the USA and Britain. Danny unfairly ties John Howard's defeat to his promise of tax cuts. John Howard primarily lost because he's been in power too long. The opposition Australian Labor party also had to offer large tax cuts to neutralise the effect of the Howard-Costello package. Tax will be more important in a nation like Britain - which has spent the last ten years under high-taxing Brown than in America where George W Bush has been cutting taxes.
I'm also convinced that security will become a bigger and bigger issue. That will tend to favour the right more often than not.
The greatest danger is that the right forgets its great victories. The debates on free enterprise, poverty, crime, family structure and the inadequacies of multilateralism are all largely being won by the centre right.
Recent Comments