Posted on 01/25/2008 7:58:07 AM PST by jdm
Peggy Noonan aims her considerable cannon at George Bush this morning in the Wall Street Journal in the middle of her analysis of the primaries. She fingers him as the main culprit in the destruction of the Republican Party, discounting other and perhaps better causes and engaging in just a little hyperbole:
On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.
Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.
And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.
I love Peggy Noonan's commentary, but this is a little over the top. The party has lost exactly one national cycle in the last four. I don't consider them dead after a single setback, and anyone who does appears more interested in garnering attention than in providing trenchant analysis.
It doesn't mean we don't have trouble, but Noonan's wrong to lay the whole thing on Bush. While it's true that he hasn't provided much in the way of fiscal discipline, he didn't run for office as a Steve Forbes conservative, either. He spoke of compassionate conservatism, a code for big-government approaches for center-right policies, and he delivered. Bush talked about working on bipartisan solutions to national issues, and he pretty much did that before the Iraq war turned sour. Republicans elected Bush knowing what they were going to get, and Noonan can't seriously claim shock over the result.
The seeds of Republican discontent took root in Congress, not the executive. It was the succession of Republican Congresses that refused to cut spending, and instead blew wads of cash on non-defense discretionary spending. Bush led in some of these efforts, but he didn't multiply pork exponentially; that came from House and Senate Republicans. He didn't climb into bed with K Street, either -- that project started before Bush ever arrived at the White House with Tom DeLay and others.
It may be fashionable for Republicans to cast all blame on the President, but that falsely absolves those who created the problems that plague us at the moment. It may also sound rhetorically spectacular to declare the party "destroyed" by having its constituent coalitions debate about its direction, but it's both inaccurate and hyperbolic. It's not unusual for parties to have these debates -- and maybe if we'd had it in 2000, we would have elevated leaders more supportive of traditional Republican fiscal discipline rather than just blindly supported the people who threw that legacy in the wastebin.
Reagan did not tell the Conservative Base to go pound sand or in the words of Jerry Ford “Where else can they go”? Indeed Reagan listened which is something Bush for seven years has not. That was the difference. Sad as it is you will be weeping this November when Mitt or Johnny loose the election. Who will you balme it on? The ones you laughed at saying they didn’t count. Why I bet you blame Perot for Poppy’s loss don’t you? Couldn’t have been Poppy’s fault for being a Liberal sellout no indeed /sarcasm
I am still laughing at you no matter what.
While your laughing consider this fact. Reagan would not have wasted a two house majority like Bush did. But then again Bush’s hated everything the man ever stood for.
Read my profile for a work in progress about what conservatism really is. We may be more in agreement than you think.
There are factions who believe PARTS of conservatism, but conservative derives from a set of core principles, not a particular policy. You’re making it more complicated than it needs to be.
I don’t know that Bush ruined the Republican party but he certainly ruined its CONSERVATIVE wing. He’s been a reckless spender, sponsored and signed the biggest entitlement since LBJ (presecrption drugs), refused to defend our borders against an illegal invasion in an age of international terrorism, signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill which violates the First Amendment and has flip flopped on our traditional position of defending Israel (as an ally and the only democracy in the region) so many times I don’t even know if he has a “position.” One can only conclude that he’s a Kerry-lite and has helped pave the way for a Democratic victory in ‘08.
Dubya is only part of it. The establishment got PO’d when the people elected Ronaldus Magnus in 1980 and vowed not to let such a thing happen again.
“....we are still strong. John McCain nor Huckabee can destroy our party. George Bush either. I am proud to be Republican.”
I would like you to be right, but I am no longer sure that you are. Should McCain or Huckabee win the nomination.....this life long (59 yoa) Republican is done.
That is exactly it.
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