BY: NCViking

It largely gets ignored by the goo-goo eyed mainstream media, but it seems Europe may be moving toward Conservatism. Leaders like France’s Nicolas Sarkozy triumphed over the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal in what may have been a referendum on the government and policies of Jacques Chirac. In Germany, Angela Merkel a tenacious Conservative succeeded Gerhard Schröder as chancellor. And now, it seems Britain is fed up with the liberal Gordon Brown. While we in America move toward big spending boondoggles and socialism, is Europe getting more Conservative and capitalistic?

From Slate “Why Is the Right Doing So Well in Europe?” by Anne Applebaum

In France, Germany, Italy, and Poland—four of Europe’s six largest countries—center-right governments got unexpectedly enthusiastic endorsements. In the two other large countries, Britain and Spain, left-wing ruling parties got hammered, as did socialists in Hungary, Austria, Estonia, and elsewhere. In some places the results were stark indeed: In London this weekend, I could hardly walk down the street without being assaulted by angry, screaming newspaper headlines, all declaring the Labor government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown weak, corrupt, tired, arrogant, and, yes, very unpopular. In some constituencies, European candidates of the ruling Labor Party finished behind fringe parties that normally don’t get noticed at all. So rapidly are British ministers resigning from the Cabinet that it’s hard to keep track of them (four in the last week—I think).

But how is it possible that the European right is doing so well—and so much better than their U.S. counterparts—during what is widely described as a crisis of global capitalism? At least in part, the Europeans are winning because their leaders have the courage of their economic convictions. While it is true that the continental European welfare states have kicked into high gear over the last six months, there are few equivalents of either George W. Bush’s budget deficits or Barack Obama’s spending binge. And where there have been—in Britain, for example—the high spending has hardly bought popularity. The theoretical version of this Euro-American policy gap is the recent public spat between economic historian Niall Ferguson and economist Paul Krugman, both of whom are at least as well known for their newspaper polemics as for their academic writing. Very crudely, Ferguson and the German government think massive deficits and government borrowing will lead to inflation and ultimately the collapse of the currency. Equally crudely, Krugman and the U.S. administration think he’s wrong.

It seems that European Conservatives are making great strides. So why is it that American political Conservatives are failing and European political Conservatives succeeding? Applebaum suggests why in her conclusion:

(European Conservatives) are fiscally conservative. They are, if not socially liberal, then at least socially centrist. They haven’t been swayed by the fashion for big spending. They are trying to keep some semblance of budget sanity. And, at least at the moment, they win elections.

Could this be the basic winning formula for the Republican party?

• Why Are We Still Listening to Ben Bernanke? - August 31st, 2010
• Favre Returns for One More Year - August 18th, 2010
• Mosque at Ground Zero and the First Amendment - August 18th, 2010
• NFL Predictions 2010 - August 10th, 2010
• Basil Marceaux ... Magnificent! - July 23rd, 2010