Replies

...Supposedly. I remember all the Bush apologists back then on FR. The mantra was "better than". A lot of other folks were saying, Better than WHO? "UUuhhh, Clinton? If you don't like Bush, why don't you get out of here and go to DU and maybe you'd be happier there!!! Wonder how many FReepers wish they could go back and expunge that history! Not ashamed of mine! Same thing in '08'. McCain better than BHO? Guess we can all agree with that...

...Point is, don't hate those on FR that don't vote D OR R. They don't come back screaming, "TOLD YOU SO"!!!...

...End of Story...

Bush was a conservative?

Yes. He was not a fiscal conservative by any reasonable definition, but he was definitely a social conservative and a national security conservative - two of the legs of the "three-legged stool" of conservatism that Reagan spoke of.

This is why I get so upset at people crying "RINO" all of the time. Even Ronald Reagan acknowledged that someone could be a conservative without being conservative in all aspects. He always said that someone who is with us 70% is not our 30% enemy. He knew that to get anything accomplished, such as putting together winning coalitions in Congress, we needed social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and national security conservatives. Nowadays, it seems like we spend way too much of our time trying to drive anyone who doesn't meet our definition of a "true conservative" out of the party.

There were a lot of things that Bush did that I didn't like, especially on the spending side. But I can't think of anyone who ran for president in 2000 that I would have rather been at the helm on 9/11, or who would have pursued the war on terror with as much determination as Bush. We need to stop talking about him like the Dems do. We can disagree with his spending without trashing the man's character.