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.
When Dean launched his 50-State strategy after 2004, I was one who warned that this was going to pay off in the long run and GOP ignored the implications at its peril. 2006 was a taste of things to come, because Dean knew what he was doing and had the courage to take the heat while looking at the long-term.
The Worth of attacks will be measured by the results at the polls, and so far, Bush has failed miserably to defend against attacks which have paid off handsomely for the 'rats.
Many Republican voters as a block would never vote for someone like Steve Forbes, anyway. He's too market friendly and is a free trader. The kind of stuff the SoCons just cannot stand. The painful truth is, the Republican Party voters -- as a whole -- suffer from biases that make a limited government platform incompatable with what these voters truly want.
The seeds of Republican discontent took root in Congress, not the executive.
This is a much more true assessment than what Noonan is trying to sell but it still misses the fundemental problem...we voters clamor for the government that we get. How in the hell else can one explain the McCain/Romney/Huckabee's trio's popularity against someone like Thompson?
Sorry, but it is the other way around. Conservatives have broken arms from removing the knives shoved in their backs by RINO's over the years. Just like Democrats, there are liberal Republicans just as committed to seeing conservatism fail. They would be more than happy to see the party head back into the wilderness for another 40 years so they can get busy working with their Democrat buddies to continue destroying this country.
I like your anaylysis & think it’s spot on.
Totally agree. Totally amazing how President Bush met the majority of the liberals demands and they are still foaming at the mouth mad at him.
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The only words the libs have ever wanted W to say are “I’m sorry that I stole the election from Al Gore in Florida, and I’ll resign tomorrow.”
They have considered every action of his, no matter how deferential to democrats like Fat Kennedy, as illegitimate.
Bears repeating.
Heck, when Obama can run a campaign as a fiscal conservative, the GOP is in deep do do.
no, conservatism is based on a simple set of principles, not a wide variety of policies. There are no branches of conservatism, only branches of people who ACT conservative on some issues and liberal on others.
Bush did not destroy the Republican per se. He created a wing of the party that Duncan Hunter called the Teddy Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party which gave big government and amnesty RINOs a formal parking place. It has become a very powerful wing of the party, not by addition but by subtraction. As conservatives have lost a voice in the party, Republicans lose elections. This gives surviving RINO”S more power albeit in party which has no majority in either house and looks like a lock to lose the White House with the likes of McCain or Huckabee.
I must say...this is a great post! So many very thoughful arguments from every side of the spectrum. Haven’t read such a thoughtful post in many a moon. This is a great site. Thanks.
I think she travels in liberal circles which has skewed her world view.
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I think she was a traditional Brooklyn Catholic democrat before she got involved in the Reagan White House. After that she had a persona as practically the author of Reagan-ness. Now that he is just a memory, and we have had seven years of life under another Republican president, she is dining out with all the A-list people by trashing Bush. She is just a social climber in my humble estimation.
I am really disliking many commentators on our side who think that they are smarter and wiser than anyone.
Nicely said. Thanks. The writers of history will look back and record the results of what President Bush put into motion.
You people have no shame, a bunch of cowards and hateful crap.
rooh intek ya zib.
a bizarre recrudescence of the Wilsonian delusion of 90 years earlier,
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Help! I need a translator.
there are people behind the scenes and God only knows what they are doing....
Dole????
what I remember clearly is that back when Reagan was going to win the convention the talk of a vice president was never focused on Bush Sr....Bush Sr was a "surprise" and it seemed to me that the choice of Bush Sr. happend over night ....anyone remember that as I did?
anyway, the Bushs' got the power apparently, but not the guts to do the right thing except I do think Bush the younger has stood up to the Muslims but I wish he had been a little more dramatic and convincing....
remember when he said about 4 days into the Iraq war that the "war" was over????...gesh....
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