Posted on 06/22/2002 9:46:05 AM PDT by quidnunc
This summer will mark the 47th year since I took my first Republican job: as public relations director for the party in Minnesota. Since then I have rarely strayed from politics, or my party. I served as a staffer to two GOP congressmen, to a GOP governor, as a federal appointee to Richard Nixon and as a corporate executive who supported in Washington and Springfield much, if not all, of the Republican agenda.
You can describe me as a conservative. Thus I am qualified to say that although I dearly love conservatives, they tend to be querulous, disagreeable and threaten revolt when Republican office-holders don't please them. So it is now with George W. Bush. Here is a president who has surprised us all with the firmness and resolve he showed after 9/11. I must tell you I voted for him with less enthusiasm than I had for many of his predecessors. But his administration has pleased me often — most notably on two issues: defense of America and social policy.
Yet, Bush has to get re-elected in a country that is evenly divided on philosophy. Thus he must occasionally — on matters that sometimes offend conservatives — dip into the other side's ideology for support. He has done so on three notable occasions: on the issue of steel protectionism, where he departed his free-market proclamations; on the signing of a campaign finance bill tailored by his enemies, and allowing his attorney general (in the words of Libertarian Nat Hentoff in the Washington Times) "to send disguised agents into religious institutions, libraries and meetings of citizens critical of government policy without a previous complaint, or reason to believe that a crime has been committed."
In a perfect political world, where conservatives are in the majority, these things would be sufficient to encourage a boycott of the polls. Either that or a protest vote for the Democratic opposition. But we are not in a perfect world. We conservatives have a president who didn't receive a majority of the votes, and has one house of Congress against him. He must make compromises to get re-elected. Conservatives who do not understand the nature of politics ought to stay in their air-conditioned ivory towers and refrain from political activity altogether. If they cannot adjudge the stakes in this election and the difference between Bush and an Al Gore or a John Kerry (D-Mass.) or a Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), they are foolish indeed.
-snip-
To read the remainder of this op/ed open the article via the link provided in the thread's header.
This looks like the real thing.
Regards
J.R.
Yes sir, that's old Barry Goldwater.
Goldwater hit his high mark in 1964, just before LBJ destroyed him in the general election. The worse defeat by a Republican in the last fifty years and that included Bob Dole's weak effort in 1996.
Btw, who did Barry Goldwater bless as his successor? I believe that was John McCain.
BTW where did you get that quote and article from?
The truth is we really don't. There are two branches to the one politcal party that now runs this country,the left and the far left. They both have fan clubs that pick sides,and then fight with each other over who will grap the spoils. They also call people like US names because we won't help them in their family fight.
Right on...you nailed it.
Well then why are you joining the fight?
Oh that's right so that you can pontificate on how you are "unjustifiably" being called names.
Never mind.
No, the president has NOT shown firmness or resolve. With the attack of 9-11, he had the opportunity to renew and energize America with a grass-roots (state, not federal) civil defense effort which would have made America stonger in real terms. Instead, he chose to increase the power of the federal government in all areas possible, even though such efforts were not only futile but counterproductive to the security of America. IOW, he made America weaker. He's still doing it.
Want an example? One word: Airlines.
...the matter of lunch for kids at school and fixing leaky roofs is within the authority of the sovereign states and not the federal government...
So far, Bush has proceeded to steamroller the concept of federalism in all areas. Period. It's hard to believe that he was the Governor of a State. Apparently, he saw the governorship as just a stepping stone to real power. (Sound like someone else we used to know?)
We do not live nor do we own property because we have a right to these, granted us by the federal government.
Something you will never hear our current president say. Reagan would and did, but not Bush I or Bush II.
He may have some personal integrity on some issues, but he compromises your's and my freedoms, giving away, negotiating away ... what is not his, nor has the authority to do so.
In that respect, Bush is just like clinton. Time after time, he resorts to a new FEDERAL program to solve a problem which should be handled locally, or at the state level. I can only conclude that he has the same regard for the American People that the liberals do: That we're a bunch of sheep that need to be told what to do in every situtation.
Great post. Thanks so much.
And for anyone wanting to call me a Bush-Basher, you're wrong. I could care less about Bush. I bash tyranny wherever and whenever I find it. I voted for Bush - hit the streets for him, in fact - but he has been a total disappointment to someone like me who wants to roll back decades of government largess. He ain't cutting' it.
See post 336 No one ever said those things about the Gipper. Oh for the good old days
I was very pleased to see President Bushes recent directive to Ashcroft and Olsen concerning the RKBA. The AG and SG, informed the USSC, the US government fully recognizes the second amendment, as an individual right and not the collective right liberals have been espousing since 1939. It will open up and allow lawsuits against certain gun control legislation. In my book this was a good move, popular and right.
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