Posted on 06/03/2009 4:15:32 AM PDT by paulycy
The answer, my FRiend: Joe's blowin' in the wind. ;0)
this “Bush is conservatism” thing has got to be confronted. We are hamstrung by our own inclination to support a President in a time of war. Bush did a good job in aggressively going after the enemy, so the Right generally supports him. Aside from the WOT and some decent tax cuts, how is Bush ideologically on the Right. I’ll give him his pro-life bona fides, but the rest is big government and open borders. His education bill, his prescription drug entitlement, his immigration bill, his unwillingness to even speak out about the growth of government and spending, right down to the very end with TARP. Bush is a conservative about like Nixon (we are all Keynesians now) was a conservative. He isn’t.
“how is Bush ideologically on the Right. I’ll give him his pro-life bona fides, but the rest is big government and open borders. His education bill, his prescription drug entitlement, his immigration bill, his unwillingness to even speak out about the growth of government and spending, right down to the very end with TARP. Bush is a conservative about like Nixon (we are all Keynesians now) was a conservative. He isn’t.”
Bingo. Worth repeating.
Agreed. And when even people like Joe actually *help* the left redefine the political center of this country by using GWB as an example of the "extreme" right wing then I get perturbed. The debate is becoming about a generally disliked (more or less) personality rather than on conservative principles.
Conservatives, as you said, must actively confront this redefinition of the political center in this country by clearly and firmly delineating the principles of conservatism vs. the destructive policies of the left.
This little thread certainly ain't enough to do that.
Wow, the media has really put Obama’s feet to the fire about:
lying on campaign funding
anti-Catholic advisor
no lobbyists working for him
his silence on North Korea threat
rising gas prices
his inflationary “printing money” budget/stimulus
firing people from GM
Chrysler dealerships that support Republicans being closed
his support for Iran’s nuclear power
his lack of support for the USA to have nuclear power
his high energy taxes via cap and trade
his willingness to tax health benefits as income
yup, that “watchdog” press. Always lookin’ out to question those in power.
And "what is your reaction to the murder of an American soldier by a jihadist on American soil?"
I check to see if Pat Buchanan is on....that’s the only time I watch the show
Buchanan must have a photographic memory. The way he can shut somebody down with facts, figures and quotes is absolutely amazing.
A lot of FReepers don't like Pat. I don't know enough about him to know why.
Bush was hardly too far to the right. He got two constitutional Supreme Court justices appointed, but tried to give one of those positions to a moderate pal of his which would have given the court to a Liberal majority. Conservatives had to defeat him on that. That battle caused divisions in the Republican party.
Joe was hysterical about Katrina and Bush was not “conservative” in his handling of Katrina; he was totally incompetent on a political and management level. How any Republican President could walk away from Katrina taking responsibility for the first responder failures of an incompetent Democrat Mayor and Governor is beyond me. He even had pictures of the evacuation buses under water! He had the Governor, after failing to evacuate the city, interfering with the Federal rescuse of people because she did not want to look bad politically and make Bush look good.
Amnesty for law breakers and unprotected borders with Mexico in light of illegal immigration, drug cartels and terrorism is not conservative. Conservatives had to defeat him on this and that battle caused divisons in the Republican party.
Joe has been hysterical about the war in Iraq and his complaints did not arise from a “conservative” Bush. Bush lost the public relations control of the war because he refused to engage the Left. That is not the way conservatives interact with Liberals. As soon as Cheney was free do to so, in one episode, he squashed the Left and Obama like a bug. If Obama brings those terrorists to the US, he is going to pay a heavy political price because Cheney has the guts and the brains to stand up and warn the public!
Bush, at the prodding of Congressional conservatives, finally came to realize, before the crash, that the banks were making unsound loans and threatening the banking system. As soon as Barney and the Congressional Black Caucus race baited him, he backed off and permitted the system to go down! That was not conservative. Conservatives do not give race baiters power.
Bush spent like a wild eyed liberal. His deficits and lack of Federal reform was hardly conservative. He did not even make it clear to the public that Democrats were the majority in Congress, spending like there was no tomorrow. He vetoed nothing. He expanded Federal power and spending in the most unconservative ways.
Bush’s Tarp decision set us in motion to Marxism which Obama is now moving forward like a freight train. That was not conservative.
Under Bush’s leadership the Republican Party ran against conservatives and promoted Rinos for power. Conservatives found themselves voting for “the lessor of two evils” in almost every election. Bush took the wind out of the sails of the Republican party.
Joe is a confused nutcake, surrounded by liberals giving him advice and telling Republicans how to create a permanent Rino minority. He does not know what he is talking about when he says Bush’s failures were conservative.
You've also hit on what bothers me, too. If the only somewhat conservative voices in the media think that GWB was extreme right wing and representative of how a true conservative would behave then the wrong impression is being made. Of course, that's probably the point. How else will conservatives be a permanent minority?
Great post. :0)
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