I bemoaned it as it was taking place. Bush never defended conservative anything because he felt it “beneath the dignity of the office”. Great! I was livid at the time. How could Bush not realize HIS JOB WAS TO DO SO. So the entire Zero pResidency can be attributed to Bush’s lack of understanding JUST WHO HE WAS and failure to lead. Trump, it seems, has learned from Bush’s failure and fighting seems to be something he enjoys. Good. We have one he’ll of a fight on our hands. Thanks to Bush we have had eight years of our nation run by a gang of traitors who only by the Grace of God have not utterly destroyed us. Those who deny these truths are delusional. Churchill said one could count on Americans to do the right thing, unfortunately only after having tried, literally, everything else. Well, we are done with everything else. Time to rid our home of vermin of EVERY STRIPE. Go Trump.
I suspect the “compassionate conservatism” was a rouse, most of us saw it as a peace offering to the left who would not accept the gift, but considering his pushing of agendas like education on the federal level w/Ted Kennedy, the compassionate descriptive may simply have read left wing conservatism.