Unradical son. George W. Bush isn't the fire-breathing reactionary liberals love to hate

The Boston Globe ^ | 8/10/03 | Peter Berkowitz

[Valin]

DEMOCRATS MAY DISAGREE among themselves about how the country should be governed, but they are largely in agreement about how George W. Bush has misgoverned.

By recklessly cutting taxes, President Bush has enriched the wealthy and neglected the poor, sent the federal budget deficit to record heights, and imposed a colossal financial burden on the coming generation. He has revived the culture wars by flaunting his Christian faith and by promoting traditional values. He has undermined public schools by supporting school choice. He has eroded the wall of separation between church and state by seeking federal funding for faith-based charities. He threatens to reverse decades of progress in civil rights by packing the judiciary with right-wing extremists. He has alienated our European allies with his crude cowboy diplomacy and provided a legitimate basis for anti-Americanism around the world. And he has knowingly deceived the American people in a matter of grave national importance by resting his case for war against Iraq on trumped-up charges about weapons of mass destruction.

[Valin]

Ready on the left...ready on the right...ready on the firingline.

Comence firing!!

[Zack Nguyen]

He has revived the culture wars by flaunting his Christian faith and by promoting traditional values.

Oh the horror! Liberals would prefer a President who was either an atheist or kept his "faith" entirely to himself, unless of course he used his "faith" to tout homosexual marriage. Then it would be fine.

It is infuriating to me that the left does not understand that secularism endangers them too.

[jjm2111]

"Bush's conservatism is certainly less rigid and doctrinaire than that of Newt Gingrich and his minions, who swept to power in 1994 and, in a most unconservative spirit, sought to remake the federal government by drastically reducing its size."

I stopped reading after this sentence. How is reduction in the bloated spending amounts "unconservative"?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Unradical son. George W. Bush isn't the fire-breathing reactionary liberals love to hate

And thats what makes FR "true conservatives" go purple with rage, ready to plot to somehow throw the election to a Howard Dean in order to teach us contry club RINOs a lesson.....

[Poser]

Surprising to find this in the Globe. It's a pretty fair assessment of GWB.

[Morgan's Raider]

Note the overuse of the word "progressive" throughout this article. The left is engaged in a full tilt attempt to redefine and disguise itself.

[GmbyMan]

Right! And there is nothing, not a DAMN THING progressive about liberalism. Every great new plan that exists right now, whether it be to create more energy, to reform schools, to reform the tax code, to remake the world, to social security and medicare, to scrap affirmative action, every great plan that is moving forward today is a conservative plan!!!!!

I wish they would stop hijacking a word that more closely aligns to US than to THEM!

[Smogger]

And thats what makes FR "true conservatives" go purple with rage, ready to plot to somehow throw the election to a Cruz Bustamante in order to teach us contry club RINOs a lesson.....

God help us all.

[MEGoody]

"By recklessly cutting taxes, President Bush has enriched the wealthy and neglected the poor."

Oh brother. I didn't bother to read past this bit of silliness.

[pogo101]

I stopped reading after this sentence. How is reduction in the bloated spending amounts "unconservative"?

Yup ... me too. I guess some semantics are at play here: "conservatives want to conserve things (the way they are)." Idiotic.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Right! And there is nothing, not a DAMN THING progressive about liberalism. Every great new plan that exists right now, whether it be to create more energy, to reform schools, to reform the tax code, to remake the world, to social security and medicare, to scrap affirmative action, every great plan that is moving forward today is a conservative plan!!!!!

"Conservatism" conserves a nation's traditional values. American conservatism conserves freedom--that is, the ability to change and to progress by doing things differently than they have been done in the past.

I wish they would stop hijacking a word that more closely aligns to US than to THEM!

Conservatives respect and try to adhere to the Dale Carnegie advice,

"Don't criticize, condemn, or complain."

It has to be admitted, though, that certain professions

plaintiff lawyers

union organizers

liberal politicians

journalists

are able to profit mightily by cynical criticism. And that these professions are birds of a feather which flock together in simbiosis. Motive and opportunity to change the traditional meanings of words both exist in that flock, so such distortions of language are always with us.

[Maria S]

Read the entire article. The paragraph you're quoting from is just listing things the way democrats believe them to be. What the author says about Bush is "Bush is not cutting taxes to pay off the rich."

I'm with another poster who thought this was a pretty fair and reasonable article about Bush.

[GmbyMan]

Just a small list of those things NOT worth conserving:

• The present public school system (particulary the inner city schools)
  
• The social security system
  
• The medicare system
  
• The existence of Islamo-Fascist terrorists in other nations who wish to annihilate us.
  
• The culture of crime, poverty and out of wedlock births that occurs in the inner cities, particularly amongst minorities
  

I could go on but you get the picture. None of these things are worth conserving and Republicans and Conservatives are trying things that, in many cases, haven't been tried before. I consider these progressive positions. If you say that they are simply movements by conservatives to get us back to the good old days, I agree with you; but you need to realize that I do not consider it progress to put these values behind us. That is my point.

[luckydevi]

Man I miss Newt

[Republic]

Moreover, having appointed the first black secretary of state and the first black (and female) national security adviser, Bush has provided exemplary role models in the fight for racial and sexual equality. The familiar image on the evening news of a Republican president with strong ties to big business and Southern majorities flanked by and entirely at ease with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice does more to promote respect for the individual based on the content of his or her character than do all the schemes for national conversations about race and all the campus seminars and consciousness-raising programs combined.

HURRAH!

At least with these lines this Globe author gets something extraordinarily real and important.

[Southack]

Did the editors at the Globe all go off on vacation?! How did an article this balanced ever get published??

[gcruse]

"Newt Gingrich and his minions, who swept to power in 1994 and, in a most unconservative spirit, sought to remake the federal government by drastically reducing its size."

Sad to say, reducing the size of federal government is no longer in the conservative spirit.  Newt Gingrich:  The Last Man Standing.

[NCSteve]

The fact that the Boston Globe would publish such an article should worry conservatives everywhere. After GWB leaves office, I expect many will finally begin to admit that his presidency has been a bigger disaster for conservatism than even Bill Clinton's.

This says it all:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/brucebartlett/bb20030819.shtml

[Jim Scott]

A pretty fair assessment of G.W. Bush's presidency by Peter Berkowitz. He lays out the liberal ('progressive') perceptions of President Bush and his policies and basically refutes or at least corrects them. Astute observations concerning Colin Powell and Condi Rice, too. Surprising, coming from the Boston Globe, but rather refreshing, too.

[Southack]

"After GWB leaves office, I expect many will finally begin to admit that his presidency has been a bigger disaster for conservatism than even Bill Clinton's."

Good Lord, man! What are you smoking?!

Presidency of George W. Bush --the first 30 months

 

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.

Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules that would have shut down every home business in America.

Passed 2 tax cuts----1 of which was the largest Dollar value tax cut in history

Pushed through TWO raises for our military.

Increased Defense Dept funding which had deteriorated during the previous 8 years

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers.

Ordered Attorney-General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, NOT a leftist-imagined *collective* right.

Successfully executed 2 wars: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.

Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the Presidency

Reorganized bureaucracy...after 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency: the Department of Homeland Security.

Initiated discussion on Social security and individual investment accounts.

Improving govt. efficiency with .8 million jobs put up for bid...weakening unions and cutting undeserved pay raises. Wants merit based promotions/raises only.

Executed a WAR ON TERROR by getting world-wide cooperation to track funds/terrorists (has cut off much of the terrorist's funding and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network)

Stopped foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions.

Supported and upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals

Signed E.O. reversing Clinton policy of not requiring parental consent under the Medical Privacy Act

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control.

Set to sign Partial Birth Abortion Ban

Orchestrated Republican control of the White House, the House AND the Senate.

Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

GWB signed an executive order enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision (re: union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes)

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia

Initiated comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE was critical.

Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first ten ABM silos in Alaska, so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes

Turning around an inherited economy in recession.

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains

In process of eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people

Signed into law the No Child Left Behind legislation delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations)

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Signed trade promotion authority

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

Urging Medicare Reform

Urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims

Submitted comprehensive energy plan--awaits Congressional action (works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.)

Endorses and promotes The Responsibility Era ("In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself. " -----this quote was too good to leave out)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Pushing for privatization of Medicare and CHOICES based on current Federal Employee Health benefits program.

Initiated review of all federal agencies with a goal to eliminate federal jobs (review to be done by September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of federal gov while increasing private sector jobs.

Part of coalition (Russia, Israel, Palestine, USA) for Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace"

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become The League of Nations ( in other words, completely irrelevant)

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary clean-up of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

As part of the national forests clean-up, the President restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges) and removed the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.

Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.