Deal?
This might make you feel safer: 15 years ago, National Review used to give out free copies of the book with a subscription. Buckley was a great friend and admirer of von K-L, once calling him "the world's most interesting man."
The Bush Enigma
How then can one explain George W. Bush, the man on whom so many Americans placed such great hope? All we can say is that there are several theories to choose from, all of which fall in the realm of speculation.
One theory holds that he is a good man with fine instincts and excellent intentions, but is such a hater of confrontation that he has effectively been steamrolled by the non-conservatives who surround him.
Another theory holds that he was never a real conservative in the first place, but i8 a very capable orator who can read a good speech and produce a convincing image. The United Republicans of Texas published such a view after having experienced all of the years that George W. Bush governed their state.(37)
One individual who shares the view that Mr. Bush's political effect has never been conservative is Thomas Gale Moore of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In a syndicated column appearing in, (38) he discussed the much-publicized Bush plans to cut spending and reduce bureaucratic regulation. But Mr. Moore then cautioned:
Skeptics find President Bush's record as governor, often alluded to during the campaign, far from reassuring, especially since he used much the same rhetoric during his gubernatorial campaigns as appeared later during his campaign for the presidency. .
While he was in office, Texas government expenditures increased faster than was typical of other states. Notwithstanding his campaign rhetoric, welfare expenditures alone escalated 61 percent in real terms during his two terms as governor.
That is hardly a record that should merit the label "conservative."
Be that as it may, anybody who writes approvingly of Franco is putting lipstick on a pig.
Compared to the Communists Franco may have been the lesser of two evils but he was still a fascist dictator who benighted Spain until his death.
Compare what Spain was prior to his death to what it has become in just the three decades since.
Like I said, lipstick on a pig.