As far as intriguing American politicians go, Jon Huntsman is one to watch. Huntsman is the Republican governor of Utah and in the running for his party’s presidential nomination in 2012. Given that he governs a state where only 34% of the populace voted for Obama and which is generally considered to be the most blood-red Republican state in the union, you might expect the rhetoric of his initial forays into presidential contention to be positively prehistoric. But you’d be wrong. Last month he made national news by coming out in support of civil unions, even though he ran for governor in 2004 on a platform of opposing them. He also criticised Republican leaders for attacking the economic stimulus package after its passage, and other Republican governors for refusing to take parts of the stimulus money. He has said Republicans need to move to the centre on the environment and he’s making noises about delaying the passage of a hard-line immigration bill he signed last year. What is Jon Huntsman up to?
In a recent Huntsman interview, Politico’s Jonathan Martin noted that his thinking resembles a “Republican brand of Clintonism: practical solutions, softened rhetorical edges aimed to appeal to the center and an overall modernization of a party badly in need of a new image.” If you think this sounds like the tactics of a certain Eton-attending, bicycle-loving British opposition leader, you’d be right:
“I would liken it a bit to the transformation of the Tory Party in the U.K.,” Huntsman explained. “The defeat in ’97, John Major to Tony Blair, after years of strong, conservative rule with Margaret Thatcher setting the mark. They went two or three election cycles without recognizing the issues that the younger citizens in the U.K. really felt strongly about. They were a very narrow party of angry people. And they started branching out through, maybe, taking a second look at the issues of the day, much like we’re going to have to do for the Republican Party, to reconnect with the youth, to reconnect with people of color, to reconnect with different geographies that we have lost. You cannot succeed being a party of the South and a couple of Western states. It just – it isn’t long-term sustainable.”
Okay, so Huntsman is trying to do a David Cameron – get his party to embrace (or appear to embrace) a more moderate, compassionate platform in order to win over the demographics necessary to get into power. It seems to be working for Cameron - so will it work for the Republican party?
