GOP and Tories No Longer See Eye to Eye
Michael Goldfarb writes:
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and the "isms" attached to their name were so close you could hardly understand why there had ever been all that commotion in 1776.
The recent mid-term election demonstrates that is no longer the case.
A lesson from British history illustrates my point: from the time the welfare state was created, Britain ran a three-level secondary education system. The top level was the grammar school - entry was gained by outstanding performance on a test given at the age of 11. State-funded grammar schools opened the door to elite education for many working-class and lower-middle-class kids. If you've seen Alan Bennett's The History Boys, you know the story.
Throughout the 1960s, Harold Wilson's Labour government brought changes to the education system, the old elite versus equal argument was deployed. Grammar schools were forced to close, or accept pupils regardless of their academic ability.
If you are a conservative by preference you are probably snorting as you read this. That's socialism for you, you are probably thinking, reduce everything to the lowest common denominator.
In 1970, the Conservative Party under Edward Heath won the election and took office. The newly appointed education secretary did not reverse the Labour Government's policy and allowed grammar school closures to continue. The name of the education secretary was Margaret Thatcher. Yes, the distaff patron saint of modern conservatism ended up overseeing more grammar school closures than her socialist predecessor even though she, and Mr Heath, had both attended grammars.
The reason I tell you this story is that it shows how Margaret Thatcher - the conservative's Conservative - believed that in order for democracy to work, new governments cannot come into office and simply spend their time undoing what the previous government has done.
Yet in the wake of their victories in the mid-term election, the Republican Party has nailed its colours to repealing the health legislation passed earlier this year.
Ohio Republican John Boehner, who will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives said after election night: "We have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill."
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief in Florida supporting states who want to repeal the act.
There is also a contrast with how the Conservatives have behaved on their return to power this year, after 11 years out of office.
With their Liberal Democrat coalition partners, they are focused on getting Britain's financial house in order, not undoing the legislation passed during the Blair-Brown years.
Structural deficit reduction - double quick, inside four years - is the goal of Prime Minister David Cameron's government. American conservatives would say deficit reduction is our goal as well. But British Conservatives are putting up taxes, to get the deficit down, as well as making cuts to government spending across all departments except one: the National Health Service.
