Finding Amusement In this Downfall of the Conservative Party? It's Understandable – But Completely Wrong

There have been times when party chiefs have appeared reasonably coherent outwardly – and other moments where they have come across as animal crackers, yet continued to be cherished by their base. Currently, it's far from such a scenario. One prominent Conservative failed to inspire attendees when she addressed her conference, even as she threw out the red meat of anti-immigration sentiment she believed they wanted.

The issue wasn't that they’d all arisen with a revived feeling of humanity; more that they didn’t believe she’d ever be equipped to follow through. Effectively, a substitute. Conservatives despise that. An influential party member apparently called it a “jazz funeral”: noisy, animated, but still a farewell.

Coming Developments for the Group Having Strong Arguments to Make for Itself as the Top-Performing Governing Force in the World?

A faction is giving a fresh look at one contender, who was a firm rejection at the beginning – but as things conclude, and everyone else has left. Some are fostering a buzz around a newer MP, a young parliamentarian of the latest cohort, who appears as a countryside-based politician while saturating her social media with border-control messaging.

Is she poised as the figurehead to beat back the rival party, now leading the Tories by a significant margin? Is there a word for overcoming competitors by adopting their policies? And, if there isn’t, maybe we can adopt a term from combat sports?

Should You Take Pleasure In Any of This, in a Downfall Observation Way, in a Serves-Them-Right-for-Austerity Way, That Is Understandable – However Totally Misguided

You don’t even have to examine America to grasp this point, or reference Daniel Ziblatt’s influential work, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: your entire mental framework is screaming it. Centrist right-wing parties is the essential firewall resisting the radical elements.

His research conclusion is that political systems endure by keeping the “propertied and powerful” happy. I have reservations as an fundamental rule. It feels as though we’ve been catering to the affluent and connected for decades, at the cost of everyone else, and they never seem quite happy enough to halt efforts to reduce support out of social welfare.

But his analysis is not speculation, it’s an comprehensive document review into the pre-Nazi German National People’s Party during the interwar Germany (along with the England's ruling party around the early 1900s). Once centrist parties loses its confidence, when it starts to adopt the buzzwords and gesture-based policies of the extremist elements, it hands them the direction.

There Were Examples Comparable Behavior During the Brexit Years

Boris Johnson aligning with an influential advisor was one particularly egregious example – but far-right flirtation has become so obvious now as to eliminate competing Tory talking points. Where are the old-school Conservatives, who treasure stability, conservation, governing principles, the national prestige on the world stage?

What happened to the reformers, who defined the United Kingdom in terms of economic engines, not tension-filled environments? Don’t get me wrong, I didn't particularly support any of them either, but it’s absolutely striking how those worldviews – the one nation Tory, the modernizing wing – have been eliminated, replaced by relentless demonisation: of immigrants, Muslims, benefit claimants and protesters.

Appear at Podiums to Music That Sounds Like the Theme Tune to Game of Thrones

Emphasizing positions they oppose. They portray protests by 75-year-old pacifists as “displays of hostility” and employ symbols – national emblems, patriotic icons, anything with a vibrant national tones – as an clear provocation to individuals doubting that total cultural alignment is the best thing a person could possibly be.

There appears to be no any inherent moderation, where they check back in with their own values, their traditional foundations, their original agenda. Whatever provocation Nigel Farage offers them, they follow. Consequently, no, it’s not fun to observe their collapse. They’re taking democratic norms down with them.