Responding to Douthat's column, Massie worries:
[If] the Tories fail to win a majority then there'll be plenty of American conservatives who'll look at this election and conclude that updating the Republican party's message and modus operandi is a fool's mission that's as unnecessary as it would be bound to be counter-productive.
Ross takes much the same view:
Whatever came of its exertions in the end, a Cameron government would at least put a particular set of right-of-center ideas to the test, and produce an actual record for American right-wingers to chew over. A hung Parliament, by contrast, will just confirm all the prejudices that stateside conservatives harbor about the Tories: Not only are they all Oxbridge squishes, but their squishiness doesn’t even win elections! (I see Jonah Goldberg is already striking this note.)
The trouble is: the energy in Britain is now for a third party that supports the euro, ending the nuclear deterrent and granting amnesty for illegals. The temptation to go very hard on immigration, or much tougher on spending, or opposed to climate change laws ... could lead to disaster for the Tories. And yet, the Tory decisions to be an echo rather than a choice has opened the path for a third party that captures the mood for real change. I.e. to the liberaltarian left.
(Image: Creative Review)