It occurred to me last week that the four ideological threads represented by the GOP factions can be found in European conservative parties, too. This is the first of a short series on how that works:
- As is obviously suggested by the name, the Christian Democrats are CDs. The relative health of the German political system is consistent with the historical predominance of the CD party.
- The Free Democrats are PBPs. Some of them might even slide into the CL category, but I don’t think you will find many of those in Europe; by and large, conservative libertarianism is an American phenomenon.
- The Alternative for Germany is the German equivalent of the Reactionary faction of the GOP.