“But with the loss of two elections and the economic crash, and most people avoiding the R label maybe those same simple-ton talking points, with accusations by them that those that don’t buy them are bad or stupid, is a failed strategy.”
That’s the price of being in power. You get blamed for whatever happens. Sometimes it takes more than one administration. Sometimes it takes generations, as with the New Deal, but eventually every party in power has to bear responsibility for the fact that they didn’t create a utopia.
You have that exactly on the mark!
Also Bush governed as a activist president, some things Talk radio liked, some things they didnt, but Bush was always active and without great communication skills. So this made it worse on his legacy for getting blame. The Bush-bots will claim Bush didnt get stuff he wanted passed, but Bush was an activist who set his priorities and that's what voters remember.
Unless you're a democrat who really did exacerbate the problem.
As I recall, we were cooking along just fine with the Bush "tax cuts for the rich" when the dims got control of congress in 2006 by lying about how awful Bush was for six solid years every stinkin' day and night. Everything that they had set up to tank the economy and win the election in 2008, like McCain as our candidate, Soros all ready to pull his billions out of the world economy -- which he did last September precipitating the crash and forcing W to start the bailouts -- and the legislated failures of the mortgage and car manufacturing businesses came together for them, but it was a perfect storm for America.
Conservatism works, and we really should try it. It hasn't been used by the government in this country for twenty-one years.