Posted on 02/28/2006 7:02:23 PM PST by RWR8189
Last week, I published a new book, "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." A lot of my friends are not happy with me for writing it, and I have been embraced by a number of people on the left whom I would ordinarily consider my political enemies. Both are mistaken about why I wrote the book and what I hope to accomplish with it.
Some of my former friends on the right have attacked me as an opportunist who sold out his party and his president to get a best-seller. They would not think so if they knew that I started this project knowing that I would probably lose my job with a think tank closely allied with the White House, which I did. My advance on the book was less than the salary I was making, so if I am an opportunist, I'm a pretty poor one.
My new friends on the left are, of course, delighted to find someone on the right who is articulating a critique of George W. Bush. But if they read the book, they will find that my criticism bears nothing in common with theirs. Just because I find fault with a president from my party doesn't mean I've switched sides. On the contrary, I wrote the book in order to help my side win.
My basic argument is that Bush has enacted policies contrary to conservative principles on too many occasions. Some of those that disturb me the most are these:
-- No Child Left Behind Act. Republicans used to campaign on the idea of abolishing the Department of Education. Bush greatly increased its budget, despite a paucity of evidence showing that educational outcomes are correlated with educational spending. No wonder Sen. Ted Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and Congress' leading liberal, loved it. The "reforms" Bush got in return were far too modest to justify his support for this legislation, and it hasn't even helped him politically. All we ever hear from the education lobby are demands for even more spending.
-- Campaign Finance Reform. I don't know a single conservative who doesn't think that this legislation is a fundamental violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Supreme Court's ruling to the contrary notwithstanding. Personally, I consider Bush to have violated his oath to defend the Constitution by signing this monstrosity, especially since he said he would veto such a bill during the 2000 campaign.
-- Medicare Drug Benefit. This was really the final straw for me. The Medicare system was already $50 trillion in debt in 2003, and we should have been looking for ways to cut its spending, not increase it. The unfunded liability of just the drug benefit added another $18 trillion to that debt, an increase of nearly 40 percent. Sooner or later, this legislation is going to cause a massive tax increase, in my opinion and that of many budget experts.
The book details many other areas where I feel that Bush's policies are totally contrary to Ronald Reagan's. Readers can judge for themselves whether my indictment holds water. The reaction I have received thus far suggests that a lot of conservatives share my concerns and believe that Bush has done deep damage to the conservative movement and the Republican Party.
The last time a Republican president -- Richard Nixon -- sold out his party's core beliefs, it led to huge losses for his party in 1974 and 1976. I think Republicans are deluding themselves if they believe that gerrymandering in the House of Representatives and millions of lobbyist dollars will protect them from big losses this November. It's worth remembering that Republicans took control of Congress in 1994 not because more Republicans voted, but because fewer Democrats did. They, like many Republicans today, were dispirited by a president of their party who took their loyalty for granted.
I think Republicans are also wrong to assume that Democrats will always behave as stupidly as they have lately. One of these days, they are going to get their act together and stop nominating lousy candidates who run awful campaigns. Once Republicans lose the votes of those who are only voting against the Democrats, not for them, they will be in serious political trouble.
I wrote my book so that Republicans and conservatives can start a debate about the future of the party and the movement. If we wait until 2008, it will be much too late. It is important for potential Republican presidential nominees to start thinking about and articulating a vision for the future now. And Republican voters need to ask themselves whether they are satisfied with the direction George W. Bush has led them or whether they would really prefer to get back to the policies and philosophy of Ronald Reagan.
Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate
More like a Bruce Barlett Barf alert. Any man that sucks up to Lou Dobbs has no credibility.
Guess he forgot too that Reagan signed the 1986 Tax Reform bill that left his successor in a recession.
Guess he forgot that Reagan raised taxes on corporations.
Guess he thinks that educating the poor by forcing testing on students and teachers won't make America stronger.
Guess he thinks that paying for preventive medicine won't help Medicare and Medicade in the long run.
Yup, IMO, he's an opportunist with no vision for the future.
"More like a Bruce Barlett Barf alert. Any man that sucks up to Lou Dobbs has no credibility."
You probably won't be sharing any comments about the words or positions of Bartlett or Dobbs, since your vocabulary seems to stop at "barf" and "sucks."
Once Republicans lose the votes of those who are only voting against the Democrats, and not for them, they will be in serious political trouble.
And he sure has a strange analogy to 1974. He's not talking Watergate, after all.
Guess someone needs to teach Bruce Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment. But then this is not about principals this is about Bruce selling his book. Actually DEFENDING the Right would not get Bruce invited to all the right TV shows to hype his book. Just another Republican sell out whoring for the Junk media.
More nonsense from the Whine All the Time Choir. The old fraud that they were ever on our side to start with. Their 100% knee jerk constant opposition to Bush no matter the topic indicates they are NO Conservatives. If they were ever truely on our side their would have some things they agree with Bush on. The fact that they opposition is 100% indicates they are not really Conservatives at all. Just more fringe 3 part types who lack the courage to actually tell the truth about the polical fringe dogma. If it were not this they would be whining about something else. The only loyaly they have is to their daily whining.
ping
Yup. You said it.
Everyone who's against Bruce Bartlett thinks Ronald Reagan sucks, so who cares what Bartlett has to say? /sarc
Do these people think that by dragging Reagan down somehow Bush becomes a conservative? Do they think that somehow maligning Reagan makes Bartlett wrong?
Although he is far from perfect, these are big things that mean a lot to me.
I continue to support Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield and Rice and like minded members of the administration.
At least Lou aired some Able Danger not seen elsewhere - his first brownie poiny AFAIC
As far as spending goes, every President spends more money than the last, and Ronald Reagan (My personal hero) spent more than his share, and I agreed with most of it. Just as I do with most of GWB's spending. GWB started out with a 2.0 Trillion Dollar budget, it's now 2.6 Trillion and that includes all the spending after 9/11, except for actual funding for Military Operations. This means GWB has increased spending by roughly 25%. Ronald Reagan increased spending by well over 200% while he was in office and nobody can look back and say he was a failure, we all complained as it was happening, but most of it was needed to fight and win the cold war. The same thing is happening today. We Must win this War against radical Islam and I don't see anybody more capable of making sure that happens than George W. Bush.
We will miss him terribly in 2009, especially if all the people on our side get hysterical over things like how quickly the Federal Government responded to an event Like Katrina, Cheney Hunting accident, Lease sales of Port Terminals to one of our few Allies in the Middle East and pave the way for a Hillary Clinton or Russ Feingold to become our next President
Blind rats following the Pied Pipers that haven't kept faith with their voters by not keeping their campaign promises towards a more limited Govt, but who instead began acting like Democrats, are just as ignorant and therefore despicably uncitizenship-like, as those who re-elected FDR's criminal ass were.
The sad fact is that WE'VE had the freaking majority the whole time and yet have buckled to Democrats on half the major issues. Even if they would have spent more means squat, we didn't have to buy anything from them, just as they didn't from Reps during the whole 44+ years they grew the beast they controlled both houses of.
And to the person defaming RWR's spending - it was primarily on the Democrat congress in control HE HAD to compromise with. Revenues doubled under RWR's 8 years too, and I'm not convinced that spending tripled as the left would have us think.
Bartlett is a free trader...[/shock, gasp]
Get with the program. BOTH sides aim to control our lives and W has proved it by compromising with Rats and doing things RWR would NEVER had considered.
Bartlett is dead right, and he is right to call on conservatives to demand a redress for failure to promote a re-limiting of this corrupt pig of a Govt that covers up it's own responsibility for 9/11 with a whitewash commisssion full of liars and finger pointers.
Individual happiness is inversely proportional to the size of Govt - in case you've forgotten our founding principles.
ping
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