Although Frum's take may be a bit gloomy, I think his assessment on the Republicans is essentially right. However, I would argue Americans are still on a whole (unlike Canada) a conservative country, but a moderately conservative one. Since the Republicans have swung so far to the right while the Democrats have avoided their more liberal tendencies, the Democrats are now closer to your average voter even if they are on the right. I would argue that conservatism faces a much worse future in Canada as the public seems to more or less believe that an activist government is a good thing and is very socially liberal. Off course conservatism as Nicholls advocates, has never really sold well in Canada. It was only a winning platform in the 90s due to our excessively high taxes and spiralling deficit. Once our taxes were brought down to more reasonable levels and our budget was balanced, its appeal fell dramatically.
Although Frum's take may be a bit gloomy, I think his assessment on the Republicans is essentially right. However, I would argue Americans are still on a whole (unlike Canada) a conservative country, but a moderately conservative one. Since the Republicans have swung so far to the right while the Democrats have avoided their more liberal tendencies, the Democrats are now closer to your average voter even if they are on the right. I would argue that conservatism faces a much worse future in Canada as the public seems to more or less believe that an activist government is a good thing and is very socially liberal. Off course conservatism as Nicholls advocates, has never really sold well in Canada. It was only a winning platform in the 90s due to our excessively high taxes and spiralling deficit. Once our taxes were brought down to more reasonable levels and our budget was balanced, its appeal fell dramatically.
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