The Politics of Everyman

DURING the 2004 election campaign, I was invited to take part in a BBC discussion of the nature of the Bush presidency. It was a lively debate, but I was miscast. The BBC wanted a conservative defender of the president, and my main argument was that Bush wasn’t a conservative. Experience has since taught me the futility of trying to demonstrate this.

Conservatives don’t need telling. Most already know it and can readily list the president’s liberal sins-his overspending, his gutting of education reform to win the support of Teddy Kennedy, his wink and nod to the Supreme Court to defend racial preferences, his quintupling of federal funds for bilingual education, his creation of a new drug entitlement program, etc., etc.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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DURING the 2004 election campaign, I was invited to take part in a BBC discussion of the nature of the Bush presidency. It was a lively debate, but I was miscast. The BBC wanted a conservative defender of the president, and my main argument was that Bush wasn’t a conservative. Experience has since taught me the futility of trying to demonstrate this.

Conservatives don’t need telling. Most already know it and can readily list the president’s liberal sins-his overspending, his gutting of education reform to win the support of Teddy Kennedy, his wink and nod to the Supreme Court to defend racial preferences, his quintupling of federal funds for bilingual education, his creation of a new drug entitlement program, etc., etc.