A Lesson for Conservatives

It’s time for conservatives (and Republicans, too) to take stock of the Bush Presidency so we can learn from history. Otherwise, the conservative movement is in a lot of trouble.

President Bush did many things right. He’s kept us safe since 9/11 and adhered to his principles when it comes to the war on terror. He lowered taxes and appointed Justices Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court. But we also must look at what President Bush did wrong or history is bound to repeat itself.

Philip Klein, writing for the American Spectator, has put together a thoughtful critique of President Bush’s record, Learning from the Bush Legacy. This should be read not just by pundits and politicians, but also by conservative voters who participate in the primary process. We can’t keep nominating liberal Republicans, or Republicans who have difficulty communicating a conservative message.

Whatever one can say about President Bush’s imposition of big government conservatism during his presidency, it isn’t really fair to call it a “betrayal,” as some critics on the right have. To anybody paying attention, it was pretty clear from the outset that Bush had no interest in limiting the size and scope of government.

Bush accepted the idea that congressional Republicans had gone too far with anti-government rhetoric in the 1990s, and decided that the only path to victory for a Republican was to co-opt liberalism. As a candidate, Bush was clear about his idea of “compassionate conservatism,” and proposed to give prescription drug coverage to senior citizens and to expand the role of the federal government in education. Conservatives, understandably, supported Bush over Gore and Kerry, but often deluded themselves into thinking they had more in common with the man than they actually did.

Bush was able to buy off many economic conservatives with tax cuts, but another lesson that the right should take away from his presidency is that politicians should be rewarded for cutting spending more than for reducing taxes. The Bush tax cuts were not made permanent, and by letting spending get out control, he made it a lot easier for Democrats to scale back or eliminate them when they are set to expire in 2011. Liberals can now point to the record deficits of the Bush years and argue that lower taxes, rather than runaway spending, was the culprit.

John McCain campaigned as a reformer of earmark spending, yet he also declared he would bail out delinquent homeowners, so where was the conservative message? Sure, we didn’t want Obama to be elected, but it was hard to support John McCain. The moral of the story is, we should only support and defend Republicans when they reflect our values.

It’s obvious that when Republicans act like liberals they lose in the end. So why support them in the first place.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.