ReDefeat Bush – His Own Right: George W. Bush and the Collapse of the Conservative Consensus
[W]hat is increasingly troubling to many of them is that Bush is undermining the very foundations of conservatism, preparing the structure for its imminent collapse. …
At its best, conservatism has three pillars that anchor it to the bedrock of American politics: that conservatives are realists who see the world as it is rather than through an idealistic prism, that they are fiscally responsible and disciplined, and that they are people who are free of bombast and pretense, who speak clearly and honestly. Happily for the American left, George W. Bush is thoroughly undermining each of those pillars. Not only is Bush increasingly likely to lose to his Democratic opponent in the fall, but he’s fracturing the conservative coalition and causing at least one crucial member – the commercial news media, which loves a winner above all else – to start to defect….
Finally, conservatives say they hate pretense and doublespeak and love clarity and honestly above all else. Despite his calls for humility during his campaign, arrogance and unreason have become the cornerstones of the Bush presidency. …
Bush is going to have to face his failures and answer serious questions by serious people. Few Americans can answer yes to the famous question posed by Ronald Reagan in 1980, are you better off now than you were four years ago? For the rest of us, the evidence in the news, our bank accounts and our daily lives points instead to the obvious conclusion that the nation has tried conservatism and that it is now time, after just a short four year reign, for something completely different.
