Tony Blair's Wise Advice For The GOP

It's easy to recognize across the aisle the danger of the tendency of political parties to recoil upon their bases after a defeat. Much harder is to recognize the tendency in oneself.

In an interview today with Britain's Sun newspaper, Tony Blair rebuked current Labour leader Ed Milliband, and urged the Labour Party to end its drift to the left: "I am happy to give [Milliband] my full support. I always will do for the leader of the Labour party, and I think he should be given a chance to set out his agenda. But in my view Labour will win if it fights from the centre."

Asked about Ed Milliband's comment after winning the Labour leadership that Blair's New Labour era was "past", Blair retorted: "The concept can't possibly be over because the concept isn't time related. It is about the Labour Party constantly being at the cutting edge, being a modernising party -- always being full of creative ideas and isn't pinned in its ideological past. That is always the choice for the Labour Party. It is the choice for progressive parties."

Blair then proceeded to praise David Cameron's education and welfare ideas as continuations of his own.

Probably most American conservatives who read the interview will think: those are wise words. Yes, exactly, Labour should avoid the left-wing extremism that overwhelmed the party in the 1980s and led to repeated election defeats.

It's easy to recognize across the aisle the danger of the tendency of political parties to recoil upon their bases after a defeat -- and to pile a second and worse defeat after a first and narrower defeat, as George McGovern did after Hubert Humphrey in 1972, as Britain's Michael Foot did after James Callaghan in 1983, as the German left did after Helmut Schmidt lost power in 1982.

Much harder is to recognize the tendency in oneself. Yet the same tendency tempts the right too. It has tempted the American right these past three years. The rationalizations are always the same, in Britain, the US and Germany. "We lost because we forgot who we were. We did not keep faith with the voters who put their faith in us. The voters will prefer a real Tory/Democrat/CDU over a fake Tory/Democrat/CDU." Etc. Etc. Etc.

If you can detect the fallacy when uttered by Ed Milliband, you should be able to detect the fallacy in the mouth of its American exponents. If Blair's words seem wise in the British context, try repeating them yourself in the American.