Republikanernas problem är också USA:s

Anne Applebaum gör en läsvärd analys i The Telegraph av det amerikanska presidentvalet, republikernas framtidsvånda och varför USA behöver bättre en nystart för förlorarna:

”There will, I hope, be a movement to reclaim the ’fiscally conservative, socially liberal’ mantle that Republican moderates wore until they started disappearing from the party a few years ago. There might even be an attempt to revive slogans like ’compassionate conservatism’, which helped George W Bush win two elections not so long ago.

It’s a vitally important argument, and not just for Republicans. America needs a coherent, sane, political reform movement which wants to downsize government intelligently, to cut deficits, reform the complex tax code and streamline the pension and health care systems so that they can survive into the next decade. The Democrats may be too hidebound, too stuck in their tax-and-spend habits to produce such a movement. In theory, the Republicans could do it. But they can only succeed if they discard the Sarah Palins, the evangelical preachers, the conspiracy theorists and the other dubious figures who have become the spokesmen for their party.”