« The Cell Skew | Main | Pelosi on Partisanship » Everything's Coming Up Disraeli19 Jul 2008 10:23 am Normally, I go weeks -- months, even -- at a time without anyone mentioning Benjamin Disraeli. But here's David Brooks (via K-Drum) and here's The Economist (which is at least British) and here's Reihan Salam. Suddenly it seems one cannot understand contemporary politics without a sound grasp of . . . 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Everyone needs a usable history, but this kind of seems like a weird reach. Comments (23)
That was the pitch that Daniel Patrick Moynihan made to Nixon that won the latter over, that he'd be the American Disraeli -- "Tory men with Whig policies make history," etc. People love their Disraeli! 
Between this and McCain's Teddy Roosevelt fetish, I think it's fair to infer that conservatives haven't had a single useful idea about governing since before the first World War.
To be honest, all I know about Disraeli is that he was a mechanic of some sort who provided Cream with the inspiration for their second album.
Yes, but shouldn't we also see a greater mention frequency for Garibaldi, Linear B, and flappers?
Wow, I never knew the UK had a Jewish prime minister...
McCain's Teddy Roosevelt fetish Well, he likes TR's image. His policies (antitirust, pro-regulation, pro-environment, pro-tax-the-rich), not so much I never knew the UK had a Jewish prime minister Christian of Jewish descent.
For some reason, there seems to always be a sector of the starboard-listing commentariat that feels obligated to cite connections with former British PM's to provide intellectual "cover" for whatever intellectual claptrap they're peddling: they seem to have worked most of the Churchill memes to death already: maybe Disraeli just looks like a less-overused alternative.
For some reason, there seems to always be a sector of the starboard-listing commentariat that feels obligated to cite connections with former British PM's to provide intellectual "cover" for whatever intellectual claptrap they're peddling: they seem to have worked most of the Churchill memes to death already: maybe Disraeli just looks like a less-overused alternative.
blogger dday had it right (can't dig up a link), these guys are really struggling, it's pretty much all useless general platitudes and pure wanking for the right.
Matt, Your Achilles' heel has always been your comparative ignorance of European history since Napoleon. That time and place are chock full of important analogies for our present situation, inasmuch as history is essentially incapable of doing anything OTHER than repeating itself. You have on many occasions said foolish things through not knowing these antecedents. You would do well to read up on Disraeli's political career and his attitudes towards partisanship, democracy, and the conduct of foreign policy, all of which are as modern as five minutes ago.
Well it is a little deeper than that. Bismark in Germany introduced the concept of social security and from some stuff I am seeing this morning Disraeli did much of the same for Britain. All while pursuing explicitly imperial policies. The concept bouncing around some right wing groups is that there is more to governing than simply selling out to corporatists. Instead you can combine Imperialism and a New Deal for White Guys. Which is why you had Trust Busting Teddy Roosevelt also sending the White Fleet on its round the world cruise. You might call it the 'Throw Phil Gramm under the Wheels Strategy'. The Republicans found there was a lot of money to be made simply licking the boots of business while kicking workers in the teeth but that in times of economic downturn it was not really an electoral winner. Don't expect them to change their spots entirely, they will still appeal to the racial undertow and probably end up with some form of the current 'White guys can't get a break in America these days'. But I think there will be a little less appeals to the notion that the only problem with American is that we tax bosses too heavily and more attention given to lunch pail issues. The Gramm/Cheney 'Corporations First' wing of the Republican Party will never go away, but I think the days of them being the public face of the Party may be drawing to a close.
I agree. The Republicans need to put forward a formerly Jewish atheist and probably gay presidential candidate.
"Normally, I go weeks -- months, even -- at a time without anyone mentioning Benjamin Disraeli." A lot of people are this way about the Marquis de Sade. I myself am this way about Tina Yothers.
In many ways Disraeli was the first modern politician
As others have noted, Disraeli's background (exotic ancestry, novelist who turned to politics) is more similar to Obama's than to McCain's. The same goes for his policies, which were always reality-based.
Actually I think Brooks inadvertently makes an impressive point: that the social contract in America has been shredded and there's lots of pressure to deal with that essential loss of faith. What Brooks doesn't mention is that the social contract was torn up by the conservative movement, which has carried out a 30-year war on government, on labor, on the middle class, and then bankrupted the nation to carry out a real war in Iraq. The notion that we should trust conservatives to rescue America from conservatism is laughable.
No, Matt, it's perfectly reasonable, and, indeed, useful, to think about Disraeli in relationship to contemporary American politics.
I think the character from the past whom I'd like to see Republicans emulate is St. Ambrose, the first man to read without moving his lips.
Down with Disraeli! Up with Lloyd George and Clement Atlee!
Bismark in Germany introduced the concept of social security He even referred to his policies as Staatssozialismus (state socialism) deigned to bind the common man closer to the state, while diminishing the power of the center-left parties.
designed to bind the common man
Novakant-absolutely Disraeli and Bismark were not motivated by the milk of human kindness, they understood that the way to stave off demands for democracy was to give the workers some of their material ends up front. I have a number of working class friends who explain their support of Bush and the economic right generally with the slogan "No poor man ever gave me a job". From a social democratic/New Deal perspective there is so much wrong here in logical, political and economic terms that you hardly know where to start. Which of course was Disraeli and Bismark's point. It may not be exactly the equivalent of the Roman policy of buying off the citizens with Bread and Circuses but it gets pretty close.
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Heads in the Sand
As I recall, at the Congress of Berlin, Disraeli got "Peace with Honor - and Cyprus, too."
That's pretty much John McCain's foreign policy in a nutshell.
Unfortunately for McCain, Disraeli, in his youth, had been something of the 19th century British equivalent of a rock star, which suggests Obama more than McCain, don't you think?
Posted by Duncan Kinder | July 19, 2008 10:37 AM