Bush’s New Conservatism

AM I mistaken? Or does the owl of Minerva, currently taking flight amid the gathering dusk of the Bush administration, bear a surprisingly strong resemblance to Fred Barnes? For Barnes, the distinguished executive editor of The Weekly Standard, has not only become the administration’s poet laureate in his superb political reporting; he has also identified the justifying philosophy of the Bush presidency as “strong government conservatism” and shown that this philosophy is not just genuinely conservative but, if anything, an improvement on all previous conservatisms-including Ronald Reagan’s.

This insight came as an immense relief to many puzzled conservatives. While they had found some things to like in the Bush years-the tax cuts, the judicial appointments, the strong prosecution of the War on Terror, the robust defense of the president’s right to overhear enemy spies-they had been rendered nervous and unsettled by others: the vast domestic overspending, the administration’s conversion to race and gender preferences, the creation of a new entitlement to prescription drugs, the amnesty that dare not speak its name on illegal immigration, the abandonment of parental choice as a necessary element in education reform, and much more.

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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AM I mistaken? Or does the owl of Minerva, currently taking flight amid the gathering dusk of the Bush administration, bear a surprisingly strong resemblance to Fred Barnes? For Barnes, the distinguished executive editor of The Weekly Standard, has not only become the administration’s poet laureate in his superb political reporting; he has also identified the justifying philosophy of the Bush presidency as “strong government conservatism” and shown that this philosophy is not just genuinely conservative but, if anything, an improvement on all previous conservatisms-including Ronald Reagan’s.

This insight came as an immense relief to many puzzled conservatives. While they had found some things to like in the Bush years-the tax cuts, the judicial appointments, the strong prosecution of the War on Terror, the robust defense of the president’s right to overhear enemy spies-they had been rendered nervous and unsettled by others: the vast domestic overspending, the administration’s conversion to race and gender preferences, the creation of a new entitlement to prescription drugs, the amnesty that dare not speak its name on illegal immigration, the abandonment of parental choice as a necessary element in education reform, and much more.