Re: Ruffini
November 28th, 2008 by Nick SaintWhile I have not spoken to him, and thus have no more information than you, dear reader, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Frederick’s endorsement of Ruffini’s nice summary of some differences between British and American politics should not be taken as an endorsement of the post as a whole, which is, in fact stupid. The clue is in the title: ‘The GOP Needs an Ideas Czar’.
That’s a very bad idea. What’s especially weird about the post is that Ruffini’s explanation of why the U.S. political system doesn’t lend itself to parties having a unified message contains everything you need to see why his idea couldn’t possibly work. Furthermore, it doesn’t really address the complaint it is supposed to be a response to: that the Republicans have lacked a coherent message of late. Regardless of the merits, this complaint is not coming from David Cameron; surely the complaint is that their message has been incoherent by the standards of U.S. politics. In which case ‘because we don’t have a parliamentary system’ isn’t such a clever answer.
K-Lo, on the other hand, thinks it’s a terrific idea, and nominates Newt Gingrich for the position.
