Monday, August 30, 2004

Conservatism, Bush and the election

Let us get this straight. There are many kinds of people who call themselves conservative. Some do so wrongly such as the RINOs (Republican in name only). Then there are the NeoCons. These guys are conservative on social issues, but not on less governement, and they are hawks on foreign policy. Whether this hawkishness is truly conservative is up for debate but they apply this hawkishness strictly in the interest of the United States as a nation and that is truly conservative.

Basically, Bush acts like a neoconservative. Many traditional conservatives oppose this branch of conservatism. The worst of these guys are often called paleocons. The paleocons are hated by the Left even more than the neocons. Many conservatives feel the same way. Fine. We won't get into that debate here; it suffices to say that Pat Buchannan is a paleocon.

In fact, Bush is clearly a supporter of big Federal government. This is the antithesis of a conservative position. Why does Bush spend so much?

First, he is a uniter not a divider. He has not used his position to brow beat the Democrats, despite what they say. He has not used the Veto even one time. He teamed up with Kennedy to write the No Child Left Behind act. In doing so, he made a comprimise which gutted the very conservative heart of the bill: he dropped the private school voucher provision. Remember, he was popular even with the Dems as governor of Texas.

Second, he knows that as President, he has to pick his political battles. We may argue over which battles should be fought, but a president does have to pick. Bush chose thusly:

1) Tax cuts.
2) Introduce some level of competition into the Education depatment. This is why he comprimised so much on the bill and increased spending. Opening this door may be the beginning to long term reform.
3) Of course, Defense. This turns out to be the most important, but he argued for defense spending before 9/11.

Bush had said in 2001 that his top priorites were Education and Defense. No one is against "education." Conservatives will argue with Bush over how to get it done, but, as I have said before, politics is about winning. Conservatives may argue to abolish the Department of Education while Bush slowly gets it done.

In the end though, the first job of President is commander-in-chief and the first job of all goverment is to protect the nation against all enemies. Wherein all conservatives must agree that Bush has performed beyond expectations. Indeed, he made a 180 degree turn. The first question facing conservatives is not whether Bush is a true conservative, rather it is "who do we want as commander-in-chief."

Can you imagine a war hating John Kerry leading this nation as we wage the most difficult war of all time?

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