We can't give Bush a pass just because we like other things he does.
I'm not talking about giving anyone a pass. I'm talking about being pragmatic and being honest with ourselves.
There is a growing conservative majority in this country, but it is not translating into what some here would recognize as conservative policies, because it does not recognize a few very obvious realities.
So let's get it all out in the open:
1. Republicans and conservatives in Congress will not stop spending like drunken sailors until they have lost the ability to do so or have otherwise been made to see the error of their ways. This is achieved by either a resounding loss at the ballot box or by public pressure. I'd rather see the party faithful work to avoid the former and use the latter to our own benefit.
2. A Supreme Court nomination will not overturn Roe V. Wade. The idea that it will is a polite fiction. Roe v. Wade does not disappear until the public pressure for the end of abortion on demand makes itself so obvious. I do not know where the tipping point is on this, but 60%+ opposed to abortion is not enough to move either Conrgess or the court. It's arguable as to whether 80% would even be effective. The Court, until it becomes painfully obvious that it shouldn't, will continue to uphold the status quo.
3. Just as the New Deal and Great Society were built in incremental steps, they have to be deconstructed in incremental steps. Any attempt to pull the rug our from entitlements immediately will result in a backlash from powerful voting blocs; the baby boomers expecting their turn at the trough and the elderly that are living longer than they had any right to expect to, and who still have an emotional attachment to the New Deal. Once the former is satisfieds and the latter dead, you cannot attempt to begin serious entitlement reform.
4. The greatest anti-Conservative is not Hillary Clinton, it has been John McCain, with his Campaign Finance mantra, which effectively limited the ability of the average citizen to engage in political speech or for qualified individuals to enter the political fray. McCain spends his days picking at the scabs of the 2000 primary loss and continuing to stick it to Bush at every opportunity. If there is dissent within the party, it begins here. McCain has to get out of "f*ck you, Rich Boy" mode and back into "I'm a republican first" mode. He is the most important national voice in the party, IMO, but not Presidential material. Get over it, get on with your bad self.
5. The War against Terror can be won, but only at the expense of a lot of treasure and a few decades. Mistakes were made, and they should be admitted to, with regards to Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of staying the course to continue to prop up some bad decisions, we should be putting more effort into fixing the wrongs and continuing to support what has gone right. It's not easy to install democratic habits and traditions in places that have no history of either. We have to be more straightfoward about these things. We also have to be wary about letting the hysteria generated by the other side influence our actions. We've already been swayed by the "international community" crowd and the "take it the UN crowd", which has tied our hands in many instances.
That's honesty. If there was more of it in the republican ranks these days, we might not be having these conversations.