Be careful what you wish for. Two months later, my strategic, cross-the-political-barricades man-crush on David Cameron is set in political stone as the Tory party membership went by a majority of two to one for Glass Half Full David over Glass Half Empty David. It's worth reflecting on what David Cameron brought to the party (in both senses of the word) and what that means for politics in general. Cameron is that rarest conservative beast: an optimist.
The last three Tory leaders have all campaigned on a narrative of how Britain is going to hell in a hand-basket, from Hague's X Days To Save The Pound to Michael Howard's ghastly dog whistle campaign for May's general election. And even if this narrative resonates in editorials and saloon bars, it's hard to galvanize a nation around a spirit of pessimism. No-one votes for a Jeremiah. Optimism is something that American politicians have long understood, from Ronald Reagan's 1984 Morning In America campaign to the Compassionate Conservatism agenda that took George W. Bush to the White House. The most convincing argument I've heard for the Bush Administration's mishandling of the Iraq war is Bush's optimism prevented him from imagining the worst case scenarios of the conflict, and therefore failing to plan for them.
Time was when New Labour understood this optimism: cast your mind back to Blair's early years in opposition and government. It goes back to the Enlightenment that all progressive governments need an animating faith that the world could be a better place. It's no coincidence that Labour turn towards authoritarianism has co-incided with the gaping absence of optimism in their dialogue with the nation. The same force of optimism that carried New Labour to power could well carry David Cameron in the same direction. And I'm worried that I'm going to feel the same as I did then.
