I've mentioned Tony Blair's book, A Journey, several times recently. I keep thinking of it because of the issues he faced when in office are so very similar to the ones we have now, he might as well have been writing about the U.S. And, what comes through most strongly to me is how almost every issue he dealt with or tried to reform, from education, to healthcare, to the military, homeland security and practically everything else, came down to cost, budget and affordability.
What was especially difficult for Blair was that he's a liberal, was leading the strong left leaning Labour Party, and in a country whose policies, programs and economy were basically already socialized throughout. Yet, he quickly realized after being elected PM, that the country couldn't go on as it had economically. There simply wasn't enough money to keep it afloat if the overhead continued on the same curve.
Faced with budget shortfalls almost everywhere he looked, instead of continuing with policies his party had established back as far as the thirties, he took each issue individually, confronted those in his party unwilling to try to modernize, and sooner or later accomplished the buy-ins he needed to establish reform. In the end, he never really compromised principles, but instead took a realistic approach to economic aspects of governance and worked to insure that everyone understood how critical it was to keep the budget controlled.
And I guess that's the thing that made Blair's approach so interesting to me, especially under present circumstances here. Because he keeps mentioning throughout that he was prepared at any moment to face argument, disagreement, perhaps even loss of his status in his own party, yet continued to take a realistic approach to problem solution because he realized that if he didn't, his whole country would go broke.
So, looking at Blair's approach to liberalism, which contains some very strong stances on budget and controlled spending makes me think that -as has been often said- if JFK were to run for office today he'd probably do so as a conservative republican, and Blair himself would likely be a Tea Party candidate.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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