Soren Dayton Weighs-In: Some in GOP Seek Lessons in U.K.‘s Tory Revival
November 27, 2009 - Wall Street Journal
NMS Strategic Manager Soren Dayton weighs-in with thoughts on what the U.S. GOP can learn from conservative leaders in the U.K.
"In terms of what tone to take, there is a lot Cameron can teach the Republicans... but I don't know if there are policy ideas yet because I'm just not sure what their policies are." - Soren Dayton
Conservative Leader's Move to the Center Inspires Republicans Eager to Revitalize Party, but Others Fear Abandoning Principles
By ALISTAIR MACDONALD
At a private club in London's exclusive Mayfair district last month, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele posed a question to fellow dinner guests: What can the GOP learn from Britain's resurgent Conservative Party?
It's a question increasingly on the minds of some Republican activists as the party rebuilds in the wake of its 2008 electoral defeats. The Tories, out of power in the U.K. for 12 years, are running ahead of the ruling Labour Party as next year's general election approaches.
Mr. Steele was interested in lessons to be learned from "being out of government" and "the debilitating sense of going into opposition" after holding power for a long time, said Mark Field, a Conservative member of Parliament who attended the Mayfair event. It was sponsored by Republicans Abroad and attended by some Tories.
Mr. Steele didn't return calls seeking comment.
Even as Republicans focus on the Tory comeback, however, there is no consensus on what the lessons should be.
Some Republicans eager for reform say the GOP should note the way Tory leader David Cameron, 43 years old, has made the party more palatable to a wider audience by pushing it to the center. For others, Mr. Cameron's approach hasn't clarified what Conservatives now stand for -- an accusation that has frequently been leveled within the U.K. as well.
The debate among U.S. Republicans is mostly being conducted on newspaper opinion pages and in party salons, especially among young activists impressed by -- but still puzzling over -- the youthful Mr. Cameron and his success in modernizing the Tories.
"In terms of what tone to take, there is a lot Cameron can teach the Republicans," said Soren Dayton, a staffer on Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and the international secretary of the Young Republicans. "But I don't know if there are policy ideas yet because I'm just not sure what their policies are."
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cameron said the Tories have published more than 14 "detailed" policy papers since 2007 in key areas including the economy and education.
The Republicans' current situation is much like the predicament the Conservatives found themselves in a dozen years ago. After a long period in power, they suffered an ideological split following a big loss to a charismatic leader. After Tony Blair and his Labour Party trounced the Tories in 1997, the Conservatives were routed in two more elections before Mr. Cameron won the party's leadership in 2005.
Republican pundits are writing editorials and articles about whether they should be looking to the Tories for inspiration.
In this month's Commentary Magazine, David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, argued that one Tory lesson is how a leader should appeal to the "voters you need to gain, not the voters you already have."
He cited unsuccessful Tory leaders of recent vintage who reached out to upwardly mobile voters the party had already won. Mr. Cameron comes from a privileged background, but with his easy manner, good looks and "thoroughly modern family life," he appeals to the female vote that the Tory's had hitherto lost, Mr. Frum wrote.
Some believe the Tories have successfully built on the idea that what a party chooses to discuss matters as much as what it actually says.
"We need to understand one of the features of Cameron's success: his willingness to talk about issues that are not classic Tory ground, without buying the whole framework" behind that issue, Mr. Dayton said.
For instance, the Conservatives have embraced the public debate on the environment, replacing the party's former symbol, a torch, with a green tree.
Mr. Cameron's discussion of popular issues has been matched by his ability to suppress topics that have split the party, such as taxation and the degree to which the U.K. should integrate into Europe.
But the idea of just discussing what the public wants to hear about, and potentially sidelining core party issues, is anathema to many Republicans.
"Taking taxes off the table is unilateral disarmament for the right, it is a central issue," said Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform.
The debate will likely step up a notch if the Conservatives win an election that must be called before next June.
"Right now, it's political junkies talking, but if Cameron is driving through the gates of Downing Street that will raise eyebrows about how he did it," said John Ullyot, a aide to former Virginia Sen. John Warner and a Republican political consultant.
—Susan Davis and John D. McKinnon contributed to this article.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A6