History
Thatcher, like her contemporary Ronald Reagan in the United States, argued that her leadership should be a time for big, bold changes, grounded in the central principles of her ideology. "It was not a set of policies cobbled together from minute to minute, begged, borrowed or stolen from other people," she said when describing her government. "It was successful because it was based on clear, firmly-held principles..." A devout Methodist, she further defended these principles as being grounded in the Christian Bible: "I believe that by taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work and principles to shape economic and social life. We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth."
Her thinking on the subject was influenced by Keith Joseph, sometimes considered the "intellectual leader" of modern British conservatism and the man Thatcher called "my closest political friend." Joseph had developed an intellectual critique of the reigning postwar and Keynesian consensus and criticized the "consensus politics" that continued to promote it.
In 2007, then-current British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown announced he too was "a conviction politician" after private talks with Lady Thatcher in a 10 Downing Street visit. He was criticised for the gaffe as being inappropriate for a Labour Party politician to identify with the 81-year-old former Conservative prime minister.
In the US, Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone was a major proponent of conviction politics from the left, promoting peace, environmental and labor protections, and health care. After Wellstone's death in 2002, his longtime aide and campaign manager, Jeff Blodgett, founded Wellstone Action, which promotes conviction politics through education and training. Blodgett's book, Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way, strongly promotes conviction politics for progressive politicians.
Virginia congressman Tom Perriello explicitly ran his successful campaign based on "conviction politics" and hoped his example would encourage others to run conviction politics campaigns in the future.
Read more about this topic: Conviction Politics
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