Posted on 01/12/2004 9:24:39 AM PST by putupon
Doug Bandow: If only George W.Bush were a real conservative
January 13, 2004
PRESIDENT George W. Bush is widely seen as a right-wing conservative, an extremist even by American standards. But in most areas he could be a social democrat, replacing a limited, constitutional republic with an ever-expanding state.
The Bush administration is widely reviled abroad. Equally strong are the criticisms at home. For instance, writes Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that Bush would like to roll back the federal government to something resembling its pre-New Deal state."
James Traub charges in the New York Times Magazine: "Today's Republican Party is arguably the most extreme - the furthest from the centre - of any governing majority in the nation's history."
Both of them number themselves among avowed "Bush haters". Yet hatred of Bush, like hatred of Bill Clinton, makes no sense. Indeed, much of the Left's case against Bush is barely short of silly. His election, for example, was not illegitimate. Whether or not the candidate with the most votes should win, that's not what the US Constitution says. Blame the US's founders, not Bush.
And the charge that he's a crazy right-winger is beyond silly. Other than tax cuts, virtually nothing of conservative substance has happened. Government is more expansive and expensive than ever before.
So this President deserves to be criticised by anyone who believes in limited, constitutional government - that is to say, a modern-day conservative.
Despite occasional exceptions, the Bush administration, backed by the Republican-controlled Congress, has been promoting larger government at almost every turn. Its spending policies have been irresponsible and its trade strategies have been destructive.
While ever ready to preach the virtues of free markets to the world, Washington has restricted imports to enrich domestic interests. Two years ago Bush imposed steel tariffs, which Washington agreed to drop only when threatened with hefty European retaliation. But that welcome retreat did not stop the administration from more recently imposing quotas on apparel and textile imports from China.
The President and his aides have given imperiousness new meaning. Officials are apparently incapable of acknowledging that their pre-war assertions about Iraq's WMD capabilities were incorrect; indeed, they resent that Bush is being questioned about his administration's claims before the war.
Some of Bush's supporters have been even worse, charging critics with a lack of patriotism. Not to genuflect at the President's every decision is treason. In two decades of criticising left-liberal politicians and positions, I've rarely endured the vitriol that was routinely spewed by conservatives when I argued against war with Iraq last year.
Conservative papers stopped running my column; conservative websites removed it from their archives. That was their right, of course, but they demonstrated that it was not just the Clintons who were fair-weather friends.
Moreover, Bush has made Democrat Woodrow Wilson the guiding spirit of Republican foreign policy. A candidate who criticised nation building is now pursuing global social engineering. The representative of a party that once criticised foreign aid is now pushing lavish US social spending abroad, demanding that it be a gift rather than a loan.
And the administration has advanced a doctrine of pre-emption that encourages war for allegedly humanitarian ends. Attempting to justify the Iraq war retrospectively by pointing to Saddam Hussein's manifold crimes, Bush apparently believes he may attack any nation to advance human rights. Ironically, the Bush administration has adopted as its policy the question posed by then UN ambassador Madeleine Albright to then chairman of the joint chiefs of Staff Colin Powell: What's the use of having this fine military you keep talking about if we don't use it?
The negative practical consequences of this policy are all too evident. Ugly foreign governments from Iran to North Korea have an incentive to arm themselves, quickly, with WMDs to deter a US preventive assault. Iraq has become a magnet for terrorist attacks while becoming a long-term dependent under US military occupation. Anger towards - indeed, hatred of - Washington is likely to continue growing, even in once-friendly nations. It will be difficult to maintain an imperial foreign policy with a volunteer military.
The Left should identify with the Bush record. He is increasing the size and power of the US government both at home and abroad. He has expanded social engineering from the American nation to the entire globe. He is lavish with dollars on both domestic and foreign programs. For this the Left hates him? Yet it is not rational to hate Bush, just as it was not rational to hate Clinton. But after spending eight years hating Clinton, conservatives who complain about the Bush-haters appear to be hypocrites.
Doug Bandow, a former special assistant to president Ronald Reagan, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington.
Mr Traub apparently never heard of Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson or Carter.
If he were to try that, I would kiss his feet and try to get him elected as many times as it took....
Here's a quarter call someone who cares in the sour grapes dept.(Paul O'Neill)
I see absolutely no evidence of this in PresBush`s current policy agenda. Maybe Bush has a deep desire to return America to a pre-FDR era, but its nothing more then a desire and a silent desire at best.
Give your quarter to the survivors, I have a cell phone:
Click here and here for lists of crimes committed by illegal aliens.
Would recommend a hearty post-mastication spit and rinse.
Keep in mind that Clintonistas were supported, directly and indirectly, by many "true" Conservatives, but not by any Bushbots.
Which ones, and how?
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