...on Charlie Rose this weekend. He's the leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, which is the equivalent of the Republican Party in the U. S. The Conservatives are widely expected to regain power as early as this spring, making Cameron the first Conservative prime minister since 1997.
Since British and American politics often echo, e. g., Ronald Reagan/Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton/Tony Blair, I wonder if Cameron is Britain's answer to Barack Obama. I was intrigued; what sort of person could lead the Tories back into power after 13 years in the wilderness? Are there any clues here for the Republican Party in America? I took a listen. Among other things, Cameron said:
The [National Health System] is very precious to me, very precious to the British people.
Whoa! You mean you don't want to repeal it or at least privatize it? Can you imagine a Republican saying something like that?
CHARLIE ROSE: How would you articulate...the guiding foundation of [your] political philosophy?
DAVID CAMERON: I would say it is very simple; it is about being a modern, compassionate conservative.
Okay, I'll admit that sounds a little like a certain Texan. But it gets better:
Modern because I get the modern world, I’m a creature of it. It’s the world that I live in and want us to succeed in. Compassionate because I think conservatives should be very interested in what we can do best to help people who don’t have advantage, to make sure we look after the most vulnerable in our society.
Interesting. Over here, the Republicans mostly say, "I've got mine; you go to hell."
CHARLIE ROSE: And in fact you said you very much were in favor of equal rights for homosexuals, very much in favor civil partnership, but you did not speak of gay marriage, which is a big issue in American politics.
DAVID CAMERON: What we have in Britain, which I think works well, is this concept of civil partnership. Because marriage is not something that is available to people who are gay, we should have...
What would the Religious Right in America say about that?
CHARLIE ROSE: Should it be?
DAVID CAMERON: I think a civil partnership is the right answer to this question, because it means that gay people who want to form a partnership, who want to have a commitment to each other, and who want those advantages of marriage, being able to leave your partner property, having proper visiting rights, those things that go automatically with marriage, I think civil partnership is the right way to do that. Now, I think one thing that has changed in the conservative party, partly under my leadership, is that sense that this is -- as a bedrock of our country, there should be guaranteed equal rights and civil liberties. Whether you are straight or gay, whether you are black or white, whether you are a man or a woman, that should be just a bedrock of our politics. Whether are you on the left or on the right, it shouldn’t be an argument. And I think that’s been right for the Conservative Party to take that step and actually say that equal age of consent for gay people, civil partnerships so they can form commitments to each other, these are things that all parties should agree to.
Equal rights! Who is this radical? If a Republican said that he'd be run out of the party in a heartbeat! Thanks for coming in; now scram!
I do think this is the future of the GOP, though. A president has to be, as Cameron put it, a "creature of the modern world." (And that means no teaching Genesis in biology classes.) The Republicans will get back in the White House some day, just as the Tories are now poised to move back into No. 10 Downing Street. But it's going to be a while. The American Cameron has yet to emerge.
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