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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Saturday, May 17, 2014

The revolt of the wingers in British and American politic

By Michael Barone | MAY 14, 2014

In recent times, British and American politics have often flowed in parallel currents.  Margaret Thatcher's election as prime minister in 1979 was followed by Ronald Reagan's election as president in 1980. As Charles Moore's notes in his biography of Thatcher, the two worked together, albeit with some friction, reversing the tide of statism at home and ending the Soviet empire abroad.  They seemed to establish British Conservatives and American Republicans as their nation’s natural ruling parties.  In time, Democrats and Labour responded. Bill Clinton's “New Democrat” politics prevailed in 1992, and Tony Blair's New Labourites, adapting Clinton's strategy, won the first of three big national landslides in 1997. 
 
But after any party is in power for an extended period, its wingers start to get restive — right-wing Republicans and Conservatives, left-wing Democrats and Labourites.  They complain that their leaders failed to enact needed changes and betrayed core beliefs. They take their party’s past electoral success for granted and push for a return to ideological purity.....To Read More.....

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