Waldo Lydecker's Journal.: Lessons little noticed, and ill-learned

British Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to Washington last week offered a reminder of the moment of truth looming for the Republican Party.

Cameron sits atop a new coalition government that is taking tough and controversial action to reduce Britain's sizable budget deficit. He is also a conservative politician with a modernizing bent who has sought to make his party more relevant to modern Britain.

Republican leaders in this country would say they share those goals and ambitions. But Cameron has few genuine imitators among his fellow conservatives on this side of the Atlantic. At a time when he has shown flexibility by keeping his eye fixed as much on the center as on the right, most Republicans here are worrying more about the right than the center.

Given the political climate in this country, that may seem the wisest course. For now, it is certainly the easiest. The real energy in the electorate exists largely on the right -- most intensely within the "tea party" movement.

Republican leaders have been scrambling to stay abreast of this movement since it began to take hold more than a year ago. Their hope is that by doing so, they will gain a decisive edge in voter turnout in November and score significant gains in the House, the Senate and races for governor.

The state of the economy has created a sour, anxious mood in the country. The massive deficit, which the administration estimated Friday would hit $1.4 trillion again next year, has stirred a small-government backlash. President Obama's policies, symbolized by the new health-care law, have intensified those sentiments, not only among the GOP's conservative base but also among many independent voters.

Britain's Conservative Party spent 13 years in the political wilderness after the Thatcher and Major governments. Its multiple electoral losses forced a succession of leadership changes and ultimately a major rethinking under Cameron when he became leader almost five years ago.

Republicans never assumed they would be back contending for power this quickly after their losses in 2006 and 2008. That they are now in a position to take back the House, and possibly even the Senate, has robbed them of the period of self-reflection and renewal that all major parties must undergo from time to time.

Cameron sought to smooth the harsh edges of conservatism -- or at least convince voters he was trying to do so. Some of it was purely symbolic, but some was real. Republicans here have done little of either. Because of the polarization around Obama's presidency, Republicans have, if anything, brushed aside debates about how far is too far right. Their intellectual energy has gone into deconstructing Obama's policies, not examining their own weaknesses.