An excellent reason not to emulate European “conservatives”
They've never had a Ronald Reagan:
Europe’s conservatives, says Michel Winock, a historian at the Paris Institut d’Études Politiques, “have adapted themselves to modernity.” When Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Germany’s Angela Merkel condemn the excesses of the “Anglo-Saxon model” of capitalism while praising the protective power of the state, they are using Socialist ideas that have become mainstream, he said.
It is not that the left is irrelevant — it often represents the only viable opposition to established governments, and so benefits, as in the United States, from the normal cycle of electoral politics.
We don't want that shit here, thank you very much. We need more free markets. Period.
"Conservatives" in Europe would be liberals in America ... and Europe doesn't even have what we consider Conservatives in the U.S.
this goes to what I was saying earlier today. Democrats in the US are European "Conservatives". Although Pelosi and most of the House would probably be leftists in any country.
there are some American style conservatives in Europe. The Free Democrats of Germany, which should hopefully be part of the governing coalition has always defended the free market. Then again it is headed by a homosexual - not going to happen here. The Civic Union of the Czech Republic is also very pro-free market
Socially all the European parties are to the left of the democrats here in the U.S. ...
a scary thought.
Well, here is what the British Conservative party has to say about government run health care:
"Few things matter more to our country than the NHS – it’s an institution that binds the nation together."
andrew sullivan, who has been running much more to the left since about 2004 or so, even admitted that he would be in the right wing of the Tory party. Cameron is no Thatcher.