Reflections on the Election in Great Britain

Apparently, David Cameron's Tories are falling behind the Liberal Democrats in Britain's May elections. I am not sure how to feel about this. There have been conservatives (or "conservatives" of the compassionate variety, such as David Frum and Joe Scarborough) lining up to support Cameron in the United States and conservatives (or "conservatives" of the anti-tax fundamentalist variety) who have been lining up to use Cameronism as a punching bag. Personally, I have very little respect for David Cameron and don't believe for a second that his "Cameronism" is a sustainable social project. (If, on the campaign trail, President Obama had so much as suggested that Saul Alinsky was an inspiration to him, then his campaign would have been in trouble; and yet, Cameron opening embraces Alinsky in his speeches and campaign documents.)

That being said, I am not sure how I feel about the conservatives falling behind in Britain. My primary reason for embracing a Tory victory would be that, while I don't believe Cameronism is sustainable, I don't believe that Cameronism is sustainable; in short, I am curious to see it tested. That being said, if Tories did lose, it might put to rest the notion of certain conservatives in America that Cameronism is the future; there are thinking conservatives who have, more or less, embraced certain aspects of Cameronism via Philip Blond's Red Toryism (see Front Porch Republic), but most mainstream recommendations for emulation (see FrumForum) have ended in policy proposals that sound like the Diet Coke version of the Democratic platform.

Anyway, their are pluses and minuses for both electoral outcomes; I'm just glad that I'm not a citizen of that country because I honestly have no idea which way I would vote.

Image from the Dictatorship of Venezuela's "Elected Leader" (Sean Penn)