Voice of Reason: President Bush is no conservative
As November’s presidential election zooms ever closer, Karl Rove and the Republican spin-meisters are doing all they can to label John Kerry a Massachusetts liberal. It’s true: he’s no conservative, but then again neither is George Bush.
In fact, the way I see it, George W. Bush about as far from being a conservative as one can be. Find that hard to swallow? Keep reading.
Let me begin by saying there was a time, believe it or not, when yours truly leaned to the right. And during this time the conservative values I championed were those of small government, reduced taxes, limited foreign involvement, free market capitalism, and balanced budgets.
Now either the conservative movement has made a complete turnaround of which I am unaware or Bush is a conservative in name only.
Consider this: Under the Bush administration, the size of the federal government has not decreased in the least. Indeed, it has actually grown with the creation of an executive agency, the Department of Homeland Security. Federal “meddling” has also increased under the president, whose hallmark education bill, the No Child Left Behind Act, is an unfunded mandate which dictates to states how they should run their respective education systems.
On the economic front, it can’t be denied that Bush is responsible for three tax cuts since he entered office. But these cuts and subsequent spending increases have resulted in completely wiping out a $281 billion budget surplus and turning it into a record budget deficit. Far from being tax cuts, they are, in effect, tax hikes, and it is our children and grandchildren who will be paying them.
As Rep. Mike Thompson noted in McMinnville Friday, under the current administration the national debt has increased to $7.5 trillion and is expected to balloon to $10.4 trillion by 2009. Now that’s what I call fiscal conservatism!
And far from championing free market capitalism, Bush has used his power to slap tariffs on imported steel. It was blatant protectionism and rightly found to be illegal by the World Trade Organization. He also increased the subsidies (read welfare) paid to America’s farmers.
To be fair, however, it should be noted these were not economic moves, but rather were crass attempts to garner votes in the steel state of Pennsylvania and agricultural states of the Midwest.
Bush further betrayed his conservative principles in pushing the USA Patriot Act through Congress shortly after 9/11. This fascist piece of legislation makes it possible for the government to trample of a number of our civil liberties, among them the Bill of Rights guaranteed rights to privacy and due process, as well as freedom from illegal searches and seizures. Most conservatives (and liberals) I know consider these rights to be sacrosanct.
On the international front, the president instigated a pre-emptive war of choice, which at last count has cost over $126 billion and nearly 1,000 American lives. Definitely not the work of a conservative.
A number of true conservatives, seeing through Bush’s fa?ade, have begun to abandon the president for his betrayal of their principals. Even conservative Sen. Chuck Hagel, who hasn’t yet left the fold, has noted that Bush and company, as well as much of the Republican Party, has left its roots.
“Republicans used to believe in balanced budgets. Republicans used to believe in fiscal responsibility, limited international entanglements and limited government. We have lost our way. We have come loose from our moorings,” he said.
Will Stewart is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].