b. Telling Isreal to end their war on terror and just die.
I guess I will have to look elsewhere for the no-spin zone. The above are perhaps the two most eggregious examples, and by listing only them, I don't mean to exclude others.
Yes Bush has been a moderate president, and it is understandable that hard line conservatives wish for something different, particularly those not attuned to political constraints. And it is right and appropriate to point that out. But the above is not constructive.
By the way, as a moderate to moderate conservative, I am by and large quite pleased with Bush. My main beef with him is the steel tariff, which I don't think was political necessary (certainly not the size of it), and the ditto for the farm bill (certainly not the size of it).
What does a moderate, such as yourself, happy with the status quo, hope to contribute to an independent, grass roots, conservative, website, working to roll back decades of governmental largess, root out political fraud, corruption, and championing causes which further conservatism in America?
What is the message you would like conservatives to glean from you, what do you hope to contribue to our thinking, and what do you take away from the FR experience as a moderate?
People, such as myself, that hold deeply conservative principles realize that we have no longer have a home in the Republican Party. Carl Rove went to California and said so in plain English. "If conservatives cannot adapt to the new "Big Tent" political platform of the new Compassionate Conservative Republican Party, they should leave". There is a war raging in the Republican Party right now in California, between conservatives such as myself, and a man, Bush, who, with his cohorts have high jacked the Republican Party and are running with it to the far left of Democrats, something that may never be repaired.
I don't think this fact has hit moderates, such as yourself, yet. Many of you will be satisfied with the doppleganger replacement Republican Party. And perhaps this tactic will work for Bush and socialist Republicans. Perhaps the vaccancy left by conservatives, such as myself, will be filled with the left, the moderate, and minorities. It's a gamble on his part for sure. But I don't think it's very kewl of moderates to slam conservatives that see the situation clearly and resent the smug tone in D.C. that says "Who are you going to vote for Gore?", I wouldn't take talk like that from a man I was madly in love with, much less some pizzzant political party.
So we part company on Bush, I see him as death on a pale horse to the Republican Party's conservative base. While I don't have an answer as to how to fix this mess, other than writing in who I feel best represents my views, I don't see how lying to myself about the facts is going to do a thing to further conservative causes, nor do I see how compromising my conservative principles is going to futher conservatism.