Rosalynn Carter, wife of Jimmy, the peanut farmer, once made an interesting observation about the reason for Ronald Reagan’s success. “He makes Americans feel comfortable with their prejudices,” she said.
That’s political gold for a leader. It’s especially true if, as in the case of the Gipper, it’s accompanied with an aw-shucks, big Hollywood smile.
Watching our Conservatives, you get the feeling – although they have a leader who lacks that president's big-sky appeal – that they are trying to touch on the population’s biases in a similar way.
Nowadays, even more than before, they’re into small-tent politics, the kind of thing that makes base supporters comfortable. That base is barely a third of the electorate, but owing to fractionalization on the left, a vote haul of this range is good enough to win.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-tories-risk-all-on-narrow-appeal-and-wedge-issues/article1574615/