Posted on 11/17/2006 3:28:19 PM PST by catholicfreeper
The Bush Conservatives It seems I and many other conservatives need to just step back and re-assess the political landscape. As I mentioned in the post below on immigration, I do not see the Republican Party offering a very palatable form of conservatism any more. So let me describe what I think is an attractive conservative vision. It begins with supporting and respecting our President and all his accomplishments. And since I and many others still have unflinching support and admiration for the man, I decided to steal some from the commenters here and dub this conservative view “Bush Conservatives”.
Bush Conservatives not only believe in Reagan’s 11th commandment to not speak ill of fellow conservatives - we live it. From the Gang of 14, to Harriet Miers, to Dubai Ports World and to the immigration issue - there has been a brand of Republican which eschewed the 11th commandment. So let the Republicans be defined by that group - Bush Conservatives will be defined by their antithesis. Bush conservatives are not afraid of the word ‘compromise’. They despise the word ‘failure’. If there is a good idea, we do not care what party gets credit - we care that the good ideas get enacted. It is not Party uber America anymore.
Bush Conservatives, like Bush himself, are for lower taxes and focused government (someplace between liberals and libertarians is the proper role of government). They are not for destroying the public education system, they are for making it work. And they understand private school access is one option. They understand that a prescription drug benefit for Medicare/Medicaid will reduce overall costs and provide a respectable end of life for our seniors who came before us. Yes, it costs a lot to care for our elderly. But it doesn’t represent big government. It represents a big heart. I am not for throwing money away. The prescription drug benefit was a nice optimizing solution to a broken system. It was consumer driven (which is why the liberals should not be allowed to go in and insert bureacratic price controls) and it will save money that was being wasted in emergency room treatments for normal problems.
Bush Conservatives respect the immigrant worker in the sense we understand people need to make a life (not just a living). We do not want the broken current system to stay hostage to the “Fence Only” crowd. The illegal immigrant worker will pay a penalty in back taxes and lost time towards citizenship. That level of penalty is sufficient for the crime of missing paperwork. We respect those who are trying to do nothing more than raise a family. The Republicans can now have the mantle of harshness towards otherwise good people. They can focus on their vision of the few bad apples representing the entire immigrant population. They can ignore the more realistic, broader images that include aliens fighting for our country - the other immigrant worker. The only people who get my support will embrace Bush’s comprehensive vision of workers who are registered, background checked, working in the open economy, and who must avoid criminal activities if they stay here. They will not become citizens immediately, and in fact will not be able to apply any time here as illegal aliens towards citizenship. They will become our neighbors working by our side, raising their children with ours. And like the good neighbors we are, we will reach out and help them assimiliate to our society. The Reps can be the party of rounding up aliens for deportation. They are apparently clinging to that image with a death grip anyway.
Bush Conservatives do not see failure in Iraq, they see the long hard, generational fight we were warned was coming. Bush conservatives will not ally with liberals to find an exit and let the terrorists follow our troops home. Bush Conservatives do not blame Bush for Al Qaeda’s tenacity. We salute Bush for his tenacity.
Bush conservatives see success in the Gang of 14, who paved the way for some of the largest shifts to the federal bench in a generation. And we would welcome a repeat of the Gang of 14 in the upcoming senate to quelsh the partisan bickering between Reps and Dems. Go for it Gang - with my blessing. If they can keep the results going like they did in the last Congress, true conservatism will be able to flow into our court systems - as opposed to imposing Republican versions of the Liberal activism in the courts now.
Bush Conservatives are not necessarily Republicans - though obviously they are welcomed. Bush Conservatism is the broad-tent conservative movement that can include a McCain, DeWine, Snowe, etc. The only litmus test for Bush Conservatives is there is no litmus tests. There are no ‘real’ conservatives or ‘pure’ conservatives. Republicans can have their purity tests. Bush Conservatives will strive for enhancing the conservative vision and making progress towards those ends.
So how can Republicans (or Democrats) attract Bush Conservatives? Show respect to the President. Don’t blame Bush for your problems or mistakes. Allow processes to unfold without vitriol and panic. Admit the errors made on Miers (she should have been heard, then rejected), Dubai Ports World (not all Muslim Arabs are our enemies, especially ones willing to fund our outer defenses), and immigration (support the guest worker program for all the immigrants now here in this country). Failure to admit the mistakes means failure to correct the mistakes. These minimum changes could woo the Bush Conservatives back into the Republican tent - but there as to be unmistakable shift on these matters. No sliding around these examples of what we do not want to see more of. In many of these cases Dems and Reps both have some atoning to do.
Stop blaming the Gang of 14 and support the results they gave us on all those new judges and justices we are blessed to have. Look positively on efforts that are bi-partisan and are rolling back liberalism’s last vestiges: the liberal courts.
Don’t surrender on Iraq. Don’t pull a Kerry. We went into Iraq and made commitments. Honor those commitments and strive for nothing short of success. We do not follow people who go back on their word. Reps and Dems can tolerate that - Bush Conservatives never will.
Be positive, show respect, and use decorum. And this is not a Chinese menu. We are not looking for ideaological purity. But we are looking for a common vision, a common goal, something we can work together towards. We can debate the details of how to achieve these, but there is no doubt we need to do these things.
Here is the alternative: Reps and Dems can be against fixing immigration. Reps and Dems can be for bashing Bush. Reps and Dems can run from Iraq even though they supported the effort going in. The parties can continue to go their partisan ways. If they do, then I hope a moderate new party can arise from the ashes these scorched earth partisan efforts have been producing. We are at war, and these partisan are fighting us, not our enemies. America’s patience with these two squabbling camps will run out.
Addendum: I forgot one important subject - Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR). Bush opposes the killing of human beings, as do Bush Conservatives. This is why Bush Conservatives are not soft on life issues. Arlen Specter would not be a Bush Conservative. ESCR is snake oil compared to the Adult Stem Cell Research (ASCR) results which keep poring in. Even one of Michael J Fox’s top scientists who studies the full range of stem cell options has leaned towards faster, better cures coming from ASCR than ESCR. Bush is very pro-life. From his Stem Cell stance to parental notification to partial birth abortion, he has successfully moved the country towards the pro life side in a massive way. That is why Reps who bash Bush are just not being true to conservatism, they are only being true to their pet issues at the expense of conservatism. How many ways did Reps hurt the conservative cause? They stayted home. They turned on Bush when they did not get one thing their way. They never refused to acknowledge all Bush did, only what Bush did not do for them, they refused compromise, they refused progress, they refused to participate, they refused to be civil. Now all Bush did accompolish is at risk while the losers keep blaming him because they turned on him. The Reps have a lot to learn. Too much, in my opinion, to be ready for 2008.
Addendum II: I must also point out why Bush bashing without any thought is really, really bad. I am now of the opinion that the Democrat wave was much, much higher than what we ended up with. There could have easily been more House seats lost and one more Senate seat gone. I can easily see Bush’s last minute push taking some of the force out of the political tsunami that hit, along with Kerry’s last minute gaffe. We did see a turn to the reps in the last weekend’s polls. If I am right, and people were returning to Bush in some small way, the Bush bashing/blame we see now is really destructive. It is pushing those who DID turn back to the reps off and making them doubt, if not regret, there last minute change of heart to the right. Reps will react like this, without thinking. Bush Conservatives are much less volatile.
Addendum III: I would like to also add zero tolerance for pork barrel spending and ear-marks. The runaway spending was not pushed by Bush, it was done by Congress. They demanded a price to support Bush’s goals and inflated the budget with useless bridges, etc. There was no way Bush would have vetoed SLIMMED DOWN budgets. That one is all at the feet of the Reps in Congress. Ed Morrissey does this subject great justice today.
Addendum IV: Reader Luker noted these fine additions to the list: - habeas corpus reserved to US citizens and not granted to the foreigners, especially the terrorists and the GITMO detainees. - Balance between civil liberties and security of our own country and its assets, namely the preservation of the NSA foreign terrorist surveillance program. - Tax reform, especially the abolishment of the death tax. - Social Security reform.
Note that the last two REQUIRE compromise so we can attract democrat support. The first two will be salvaged by folks like Lieberman (and hopefully Harman) putting national security above partisanship. We will now be indebted any democrat who helps save these items.
Posted by AJStrata on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 1:11 pm.
Then the purists had best come to grips with this: Sometimes the good guys have got mud and guck all over 'them' too. It comes from this:
CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC
"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are.
The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength.
It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."
----End Quote
A walk of faith with deeds and actions. So much of what goes on in DC happens behind closed doors. The President has asked us to trust him.
I do. It's as simple as that. And with full knowledge that what stage plays emerge in House and Senate, I trust what he says about it. This has always told me MORE about what is really going on in "congress" than any "expert opinion" from the MSM. He's got my support.
Moderates in any party can be used by either party. And useful too.
I am hoping overreaching by the Dems will help us
I think they are already hoping for this too. ;>
Thanks for this post. This comes pretty darn close to summing up my own political philosophy. I'm getting pretty tired of the relentless bashing of Bush (and by extension, me).
I do. It's as simple as that. And with full knowledge that what stage plays emerge in House and Senate, I trust what he says about it.
I trust what Bush says too, but he's too moderate/social on many issues. I realize that now after this election. I would stand with him shirking some of my principles based on this war and how as repubs we have to be better constructors than the DBM/dems taking over, but not now! The game is full on! Anyways, what are you talking about, we just got trounced in this past election there's not much Bush can do or say about what "stage plays" emerge in Congress?
You go on with your little moderating sharade while the rest of conservatives get fed up with your DO NOTHING, ANTI-ADVANCEMENT, ANTI-CONSERVATIVE, PRO-LIBERAL, RINO agenda and see what happens. I'm through with sticking up for your sorry moderating crappola!
Ya got 'em now. Grandma Pelosi and her terrier Dog Hillary.
I'm through with sticking up for your sorry moderating crappola!
Moderating? You sticking up for me? LOL. I'm no moderate. I have very firmly held convictions. I don't expect to see my clone elected to office. You do.
Freedom of religion. That's what we've got. And some, like you demand, your clone be President to promote ONLY your firmly held convictions. You say you want peace?
No, not sticking up for you, I was referring to moderates and their ilk.
Bush is a moderate and eventhough I will take him over any dem any day, I now will refuse to back him if he wants to enact something that is antithetical to conservative causes.
You don't get this do you? Keep thinking moderates, and rino's are good for the party just for majority purposes. Keep thinking stunts like McPainintheass pulls GO14 are gonna help advance things, keep thinking that at the last friggin minute repubs decide to grow some and enact legislation to stall some illegal immigrants from entering the country after the base has been screaming for years about them to do something. Keep wanting to go along, to get along with people who have no interest in working for common sense solutions and you'll end up in the minority even if repubs win like they did in the previous election. Is having repubs in the majority better than having dems there, YES, but I will no longer support them if they want to moderate or compromise a conservative agenda just to, "Get Along."
No, I do not want peace! I want all out frontal war. There is a time for peace and there is a time for war. I want war and I want to WIN that war, because there is no other alternative. Moderation on core conservative principles is NOT acceptable in this time. We are fighting two enemies. One of which is trying to destroy our institutions, traditions, and values from within our own country and you can not beat them back with "moderation" because they will just take advantage of you. For goodness sakes, Libs are moderates themselves.
I don't want GNR type leadership, I want more of a RUSH style leadership! They get things done REALLY well! Ever heard of Tom Sawyer, or Spirit Of the Radio?
You do that.
Oh, no I grok the "purist" message very well. And when the next congress votes to legalize all the drugs, our soldiers in Afghanistan can just "look the other way" as the Taliban moves in to confiscate and then sell opiates on the open market which will find their way into the US.
Got it.
Maybe some of the soldiers can imbibe, too. What's a war against terrorists anyway, when there's evil "moderates" (by your definition) to battle here at home.
Sometimes, the purists cannot see the forest for the trees. They can only think of one item at a time. They seem unable to multi-task, mentally.
The "purists" want a scorched earth policy. They might get one. I'm no moderate.
Pay attention Alia.
There is only ONE war on terror. I FULLY support the President's actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. What I do NOT support is his repeated claims to be "doing everything in my power to protect our country", when CLEARLY, he is not. Our borders should have been effectively secured on 9/12 and they were not and still are not. And how is the 'new' DHS suppose to prevent someone from walking across the border with WMD, if they refuse to secure the border? Do you understand WHY they were not secured and never will be, Alia? Do you not get the fact that Bush's support of the bipartisan OBL North American Union agenda is preventing him from doing it and has caused his alignment with the Dims? Or do you not even know what the OBL/NAU is?
Bush made the OBL agenda, part of which is open borders and amnesty, PRECIDENCE in a critical election year. He pushed and pushed it and we lost because he risked it all, not just risked losing the elections, but the entire WOT to the Dims and the terrorists, for the OBL? WHY?
I'm not fighting a different war Alia, I'm want to win the WOT, the one we're in, and I'm demanding that the OBL be destroyed before it destroys us! Yes, that's contrary to what Bush wants. Tough. When it comes to national security, I don't hold the DIMs up to any decent standard Alia. But your dang straight that I do hold a Republican President to a higher standard. Yes, national security is a single issue. Without it, there are no others. I've 'filibustered' nothing. I worked my azz off to defeat Kerry, voted for Bush twice and voted a straight R ticket again, inspite of him.
The Republican party cannot unite to defeat the OBL and win the WOT unless folks like you are willing to recognize and acknowledge that it must be done with or without GWB. He's made his choice...without! In many respects, GWB has been a great President, but get past defending him on this issue or we will lose the WOT to a dirty bomb in our own backyards.
GWB has been a great President, but get past defending him on this issue or we will lose the WOT to a dirty bomb in our own backyards.
I've just read where the Pelosian Regime is considering tearing apart the legislation on the proposed border fence, and is considering working towards a "comprehensive" plan involving a virtual fence, for the border. How are you with that?
You're way off base here just like the repub party was in the last election thinking they were gonna cost to victory on the slogan, "Don't vote for them because they're scary." I voted STRAIGHT REPUB ticket this last election because I know what this evil bunch of DBM/dems are going to do, and know we can't afford this current reality. I'm not a "one item" guy. I'm just trying to point out the repubs better not expect me to stand up and support a moderate agenda just to get along with dems any more. I support Bush in the WOT, but I'm now refusing to back his or any other moderates, get along compromising stands. I'm sick of moderates destroying or allowing this country to be destroyed within!
Conservatives better get this message, you better start legislating like conservatives with a conservative agenda and stop making excuses why not to fight the DBM/dems, because they don't care what you do they're going to push their anti-america, cut and run agenda!
Not and compromise my principles to the point where they are unrecognizable any more.
I see you're one of my biggest fans!
Thanks for the acclamation!
"How are you with that?"
I think we know how the President is with that....
You've got it exactly right.
No More Votes For Republicans Who Don't Deliver!
None!
Oh, and No More Votes for crooks either. I know democrats are just as bad --probably worse. That's why i stopped voting for them long ago.
Maybe you can start by encouraging some of your buddies to stop slandering Alan Keyes.
More like a wild pitch than a fast ball.
I believe there are something approaching 100 judicial nominations that have been held by Specter's committee. I do not think the "vast majority" are getting passed. RINOs will not let them come to a vote and now it is too late...SCOTUS is not the only position on the federal bench that needs a conservative dusting.
Not true. Most conservatives are just fine and dandy. There is no desperation on the rightwing. The problem conservatives have is mainly with liberal and centrist Republicans who have tossed off the Reagan policy agenda and instead have stood with the BeltWay status quo.
George W. Bush suffered the worst Congressional defeat by a Republican President since Herbert Hoover in the 1932 election. Bush ignored his conservative base and the GOP paid the price at the polls on November 7th. Bush was disconnected from most voters and incapable of properly communicating his message to the American people. For the last 15-18 months Bush`s leadership has been subpar. There were obvious warning signs on the horizon and many conservatives spoke out, but they were ignored. From outrageous federal spending and expanding the welfare state bureaucracy, to illegal immigration, the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the overall response to Hurricane Katrina and the outrageous Dubai Ports World deal. Not to mention the overall poor handling of Iraq. Bottomline. The President is ultimately responsible. Bush failed Republicans. End of story.
"There is only one way to make government bite the bullet .... on all those things that should be a matter of concern. And that is to hold all elected officials accountable. Match their performance with their promises, and if you find some who don't measure up, vote them out of office.
--- Governor Ronald Reagan, Speech, Oct. 15, 1974.
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