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American conservatives don’t think terribly highly of the British Tories — if, that is, they think of them at all. With the exception of the sainted Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Conservatives have acquired a reputation among their more populist American cousins for being aristocratic squishes: part Bertie Wooster and part Arlen Specter.

David Cameron, the Tory leader campaigning to become Britain’s next prime minister, fits this stereotype all too neatly. He’s an Eton man, an alumnus of Oxford’s posh and rowdy Bullingdon Club, and a direct descendant of King William IV. His early career as Tory leader was devoted to “modernizing” the Conservative Party after a decade of defeat. This meant riding a bicycle, appearing regularly without a tie, and talking as much...