American Republicans must modernize from the politics of President Reagan, former British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith urged Monday.
“If Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan were still around, and at the height of their considerable powers, their manifestos would be for these times, and not for the times that they were in in the 1980s,” Smith, a former Tory leader in the British parliament, urged during a speech at the Heritage Foundation. “The problems today are a little different from the problems they faced.”
Smith encouraged American Republicans to draw from the lessons of the U.K.’s Tories’ resurgence by speaking more credibly about poverty and other bread-and-butter issues, and reaching out to minority and gay and lesbian communities.
Smith dryly suggested the GOP should “pause carefully” before lionizing conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh as a party leader.
Smith did, however, name four promising leaders for the GOP: House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
Watch a video of Smith’s speech below: