And It's... David "Tory Blair" Cameron!!!
posted by Will
As a bit of an anglophile, having lived in London for a spell, the occasion of the Tory leadership debate has caused me to think lately about British v. American politics. I can't like everything about a culture that is fascinated by this guy, but it has advantages. You see, David Cameron is a Tory--not at all liberal by British standards, but his ascension to the helm of the party of Churchill and Thatcher has some lessons for American... --Oh, bloody hell ... sod it...
No!--the Tory leadership debate has no lessons for us, because, you see, British politics are fundamentally different from ours. They have what's called an "informed electorate", and a press that does something called "informing the electorate".
cont'd after link
British political debates have some articulation, direct (even confrontational!) argument, and attempts at rigorous logic. It comes from their press. Listen to the Today program on the BBC every now and then. Listen to John Humphrys interview a politician and then tell yourself with a straight face that Wolf Blitzer is "hard-nosed" or that these two will ever break any story.
Our democracy will survive only as long as the press has a pulse.
The British press is better for two reasons. (1) There is no anti-intellectualism in that country of the kind we're plagued by, so they can be smart without everyone switching to Access Hollywood. (2) Opposition politicians don't pander for the softest of the "please-don't-blame-me" middle ground. They attack attack attack, and they put up their best and brightest people to do it. We, simply...don't. We need smarter candidates, and we need to start organizing a shadow government system like the Brits have.
Shadow governments are the best thing Britain has developed since colonization--and we've certainly already imported that! (And kinda screwed it up...)
We Democrats need to select members of Congress to be responsible for the message on any given topic, or they should self-appoint if we're too silly to do it in an organized way. We need them deployed every day into the morass of cable news, and we need them to grow a pair and force our lame press to actually host a debate or two. Because, God willing, we will win.
In the meantime, I’ll listen to the BBC and weep softly.
No!--the Tory leadership debate has no lessons for us, because, you see, British politics are fundamentally different from ours. They have what's called an "informed electorate", and a press that does something called "informing the electorate".
cont'd after link
British political debates have some articulation, direct (even confrontational!) argument, and attempts at rigorous logic. It comes from their press. Listen to the Today program on the BBC every now and then. Listen to John Humphrys interview a politician and then tell yourself with a straight face that Wolf Blitzer is "hard-nosed" or that these two will ever break any story.
Our democracy will survive only as long as the press has a pulse.
The British press is better for two reasons. (1) There is no anti-intellectualism in that country of the kind we're plagued by, so they can be smart without everyone switching to Access Hollywood. (2) Opposition politicians don't pander for the softest of the "please-don't-blame-me" middle ground. They attack attack attack, and they put up their best and brightest people to do it. We, simply...don't. We need smarter candidates, and we need to start organizing a shadow government system like the Brits have.
Shadow governments are the best thing Britain has developed since colonization--and we've certainly already imported that! (And kinda screwed it up...)
We Democrats need to select members of Congress to be responsible for the message on any given topic, or they should self-appoint if we're too silly to do it in an organized way. We need them deployed every day into the morass of cable news, and we need them to grow a pair and force our lame press to actually host a debate or two. Because, God willing, we will win.
In the meantime, I’ll listen to the BBC and weep softly.
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