Now that Peter’s cried uncle I won’t post all the reader testimonials I’ve gotten but I think this makes a point I probably should have. I disagree with Bush a lot, but I think he is a man of integrity (all of the caveats one must offer about politicians notwithstanding) and that most of things I don’t like about him are things we already knew about when he ran for office:
Jonah, I like to think of myself as representative of the most devoted Corner readers (I never, *ever* project my biases. Actually, I don’t even have any biases. Conservatism is simply reality 🙂 ), and I would say that
I fall nearly squarely into your impression of Corner readers. Where Bush’s
priorities overlap conservative ones, I am exactly as you say. That is,
TWOT, judicial nominations and socsecurity reform are issues on which I
firmly support the president from a policy standpoint. I disagree with him
vehemently on immigration, campaign finance “reform”, education, and
medicare.
However, there is something that bears mentioning. As strongly as I
disagree with Bush on certain policy questions, I support him far more
strongly as a man of strong character and integrity. He may want the
federal government to fund and regulate education, but I know that he wants
that because he really believes that would be the best course and not
because his primary purpose is to score political points with someone. This
makes it possible to have *real* debate whose results are reasonable and
thoughtful policy decisions. If he were primarily interested in scoring
political points, we wouldn’t have gone to Iraq, we would be calling him
“Son of Bill”, and intellectual policy debates replaced with simple
political calculations purposed toward the acquisition of power.
This is the *real* difference between “mainstream” Republicans and
“mainstream” Democrats in my opinion, and this is why Bush garnered so much
support from conservatives in his elections (and, incedentally, the
“polarization” we hear about so often; republicans/conservatives largely
aren’t playing by the rules the liberals are. It’s easy to perceive a
polarization between groups of people who are playing entirely separate
games). We all knew (particularly those of us from Texas) that he was a
spender, had a soft spot in his heart for social programs, and was not
famous for his federalist credentials.
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