Conservatives Today Suffer From the Anti-Conservative Policies of Bush 41 and Bush 43

Richard Viguerie's Conservative HQ ^ | 5/4/11 | Richard Viguerie

[SharpRightTurn]

I received an astute e-mail message from my good friend, Tom Pauken, a former Chairman of the Texas Republican Party and the Director of the ACTION federal agency during the Reagan Administration. He wrote:

“We are paying a heavy price for the systematic suppression of independent conservative political leadership that began with the presidency of George H. W. Bush and continued through the presidency of his son.

“The rise of the Tea Party and return of the independent conservatives to battle in 2010 has resulted in a lot of new leaders emerging on the scene. We have a good farm club for the future, but our major league team that would have been there had the Reaganites remained the dominant force in the Republican Party has been decimated, scattered, retired, or simply died off.”

“How do you pull together a conservative team of outsiders--similar to the one gathered together by Ronald Reagan and brought to Washington to take on the political elites--quickly? I don't mean to be blunt, but I don't think the current crop of candidates have even thought through this problem or realize the kind of principled, outside talent it will take to address the mess a new administration will inherit.

“I fear that the Bush retreads and the inside-the-beltway group that ostensibly is ‘on our side’ will simply replace the Obamaites, instead of the wholesale personnel changes we need throughout the executive branch of government.”

Pauken’s observations and comments are extremely important.

The 2010 elections brought encouraging victories at all levels around the country. None were greater than in the races for the state legislatures. Republicans gained about 700 seats in the legislatures and picked up 20 legislative chambers.

Some of these newly elected state legislators will be our future governors, congressmen, and senators. And, yes, I believe several future presidents are part of this freshman class of state legislators.

I can see the future and it looks very bright for conservatism. But mitigating my enthusiasm is a realization that, for several reasons, the present situation is not so keen.

After the Reagan Administration, solid Reaganites were shunned by the first Bush Administration. At one cabinet agency, the Reagan political appointees were immediately shown the door after the inauguration, even though the Bush people were not yet appointed.

The Bush Administration preferred career bureaucrats to temporarily run the agencies, rather than holdover Reagan people.

Three Reagan appointees from Texas who I know tried in vain to find new appointments in the Bush Administration. Finally, one of them realized that all three of them were well known at the White House and, because of their longtime conservative activism in the Lone Star State, were likely on some kind of list of persons to be avoided.

There were a few “exceptions that proved the rule” regarding the antagonism of the Bush people to Reagan appointees. But the election of George H. W. Bush significantly “changed the game” in government.

Somehow, during the 2000 campaign, the second President Bush was able to convince conservatives he was one of them. But when he took office, boy, was that a different story. If you’d like to refresh your memory about those eight years, you can read all about it in my book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.

Not only were the governmental policies of the two Bush administrations detrimental, they excluded a generation of conservatives from gaining the experience that would have helped us govern in the future.

The Bush regimes also did tremendous harm to the conservative movement, which did little to fight their policies.

After the GOP lost control of both the House and Senate, I ran polls online and at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) asking who was responsible for the disastrous election results. The respondents chose as the chief culprit those conservative leaders who kept silent when the GOP became the party of big government.

Because the big government Republican politicians in the Bush Administration and Congress did not receive criticism from conservative leaders and conservative media, they felt free to continue down that same path until they were tossed out of office by the voters.

Now that Barack Obama is president, conservative leaders no longer “pull their punches” in criticizing excessive government spending, dangerous deficits, proposed amnesty for illegal aliens, endless wars, and bailouts of giant corporations.

And at some point, there will be a change in GOP leaders in the House and Senate. The ties to Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell will be broken and congressional Republicans will be led by younger, principled conservative leaders.

[SharpRightTurn]

2010 saw a few establishment Republicans taken out by the Tea Party. We need to sweep the rest of them out in 2012, all the "moderates", "compassionate conservatives", and "big government conservatives".

[stockpirate]

And ALL of the Bushbots here need to be zotted.

[izzatzo]

One thing the article tells me is that we don’t need Jeb Bush to solve things, a Bush is a Bush to me, squishy, elitist moderates, although I voted for GWB four times-what choice did I have?

[vpintheak]

It’s why I call them republiCANTS. The establishment ones anyway. I hope these freshmen have the fortitude to remain true and not give in to the luxury, wealth, and prestige that our pampered “public servants” live.

[garjog]

This is so true. We need to dis-invest the power of the Federal Government and return these programs to the States. Local control should be our theme. The US treasury shouldn't be a treasure chest of goodies to give away to gain favor of power groups.

Perhaps a system of block grants is the way to go at first to dismantle this monstrous beruoracry.

[wardaddy]

Lol..be a cold day in Fresno

[piytar]

“And ALL of the Bushbots here need to be zotted.”

Nope. They need to be shown the error of their ways. Most Bushbots just don’t “get it.” But they’re not leftscum.

We have to win some people over, not just kick them all to the curb...

[RedStateRocker]

The true test of a conservative: will they decry using the power of the state to compel, or prevent behavior, when such compulsion or prevention is unconstitutional, even when they wholeheartedly agree with the moral or patriotic intent of the actions.
JBL’s and Drug Warriors are good examples; folks who support a SWAT team kicking down doors and shooting the dog on something that should be knocking on a door and handing someone the warrant.

[fishtank]

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!

Pauken has been in Texas dealing (against) the Bushes for a looooooong time.

He’s one of my heroes....

[Night Hides Not]

And ALL of the Bushbots here need to be zotted.

I'm keeping a close watch on the candidates. Those that hire the likes of Rove, Nicolle Wallace, Dana Perino, etc. can forget about my support.

Michael Gerson'a at the top of that list, too.

[rockinqsranch]

Been sayin’ it for years. “Pull the chain”. “Pull that chain multiple times, until the Congressional bowl is cleaned out”. “If it takes 3, even 4 election cycles, pull that chain”. “Clean ‘em all out”.

From the article: “And at some point, there will be a change in GOP leaders in the House and Senate.”

Something about “Make it so #1” comes to mind.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Remember the heat of the 2004 election? If you pointed out in election posts that Bush didn’t care about spending restraint, you were pretty much accused of treason to the conservative cause and aiding and abetting the Kerry election. We do this to ourselves. You can’t criticize the conservative superstar of the day without being slammed.

[Psalm 144]

“And ALL of the Bushbots here need to be zotted.”

No. Most of them are good people, however deluded by cult of personality. Bush got some things right, and he looks good by comparison with his predecessor and successor (few would not). That and some buzzwords have cemented the loyalty of some people who are too trusting, and too easily satisfied. That is no reason to zot people who at the end of the day are on the same side.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Remember the heat of the 2004 election? If you pointed out in election posts that Bush didn’t care about spending restraint, you were pretty much accused of treason to the conservative cause and aiding and abetting the Kerry election.”

Or during Bush’s second or third push for amnesty, when the leftists were saying he should be impeached for Iraq and Afghanistan, if you said “if there is any reason Bush should be impeached it is because of his refusal to protect our borders”, Bushites would go into a rage.

[cyn]

"Something about “Make it so #1” comes to mind."

haha, would be wonderful if it could work that way!

[mjp]

to take on the political elites

Moderate Republicans are sympathizers of the political elites who favor the status quo of mixed economy in economics and the politics of pragmatism, eclecticism, and opportunism rather than capitalism and limited government.

[RitaOK]

Pauken defines John Cornyn but should know where the possibilities lay and failed to say. I still missed the point somewhere, as in where the hell is the solution and I mean in time for 2012. Another four for Obama and there is no conservative future.

[Jim Scott]

And ALL of the Bushbots here need to be zotted.

I don't believe in 'zotting' those who may disagree with me but are constitutional conservatives. I defended G.W. Bush many times during his administration because he was bitterly attacked 24/7 by the leftmedia. I thought he was a good guy that went wrong on illegal immigration, the Medicare prescription drug plan and spending as well as the bailout schemes he approved in his last months in office but he was still so much better than a 'President Gore' would have been, much less, a 'President Kerry' that I felt Bush had to be defended where he was doing well, such as with Iraq (the initial invasion and post-surge) and his tax cuts. Yes, he was not a conservative - and many of us were well aware of that, but he wasn't a liberal, either. I don't subscribe to throwing out the 'good' because it isn't 'perfect'. However, times change.

With the ascendancy of Barack Hussein Obama to the U.S. presidency and the damage he is doing even as we post, the time for neo-conservatives and flat-out RINOs is over. I don't mind examining the past and figuring out how we got here (Richard Viguerie offers a cogent analysis) but we can't just pull up the drawbridge and belligerently exclude millions of potential Republican voters because they don't meet an ideological purity test. I believe they can be convinced to vote for a real conservative. Well, the majority can. Candidates are a different story. In my opinion, they have to meet that test. This next election will be a epochal moment for America and conservatives that love their country, see the danger liberalism poses to it and know that it must change, now. The time for equivocation is past. The danger is real and present. RINOs need not apply.

[heye2monn]

Send the RINOs out to pasture. Where the old elephants go.

I am tired of a socialist president fending off attacks by saying that Republicans have no credibility on budgets. And why do they have no credibility? Because of the Bush profligacy.

[BufordP]

John Derbyshire: Eight Wasted Years ...Margaret Thatcher used to talk about the “ratchet effect.” When the Left gets power, she said, they drive everything Left; when the Right gets power, they slow the Leftward drive, perhaps even halt it for a spell; but nothing ever gets moved to the Right. U.S. politics in the 21st century so far bears out this dismal analysis. What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn’t let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word... Bill Gertz interview on Hannity and Colmes Gertz: Well he casts himself as a compassionate conservative and I argue that he's neither. That his administration is neither. He's done tremendous damage to the conservative movement...