The Los Angeles Times on the conservative crackup
The Sunday Current section of the Los Angeles Times has three articles on how George W. Bush has betrayed conservatism. Jeffrey Hart writes how Bush is too much of an ideologue to be a conservative in the Burkean sense. Bruce Bartlett writes how Bush is too much of a spendthrift to be a conservative in ...
The Sunday Current section of the Los Angeles Times has three articles on how George W. Bush has betrayed conservatism. Jeffrey Hart writes how Bush is too much of an ideologue to be a conservative in the Burkean sense. Bruce Bartlett writes how Bush is too much of a spendthrift to be a conservative in the fiscal sense And your truly writes how Bush has been too inconsistent and too incompetent to be a conservative in the foreign policy sense: [D]octrinal disputes aside, Republicans like me are angry at Bush because he has frittered away one of the party's greatest assets ? the belief that when it came to international relations, the GOP was the party of competence. Between 1965 and 2000, analysts gave Republican presidents better grades than Democrats in managing American foreign policy. The latest public opinion polls, however, give congressional Democrats a new edge on national security issues. Which is not surprising given the administration's failures at matters that should be routine ? interagency cooperation, contingency planning, congressional consultations, alliance management and so on. In the eyes of his party, Bush's biggest foreign policy sin is not his aims, or even his means. It's that he has done the improbable ? he's made the Democrats look like a credible alternative. Enjoy your conservative crackup!!
The Sunday Current section of the Los Angeles Times has three articles on how George W. Bush has betrayed conservatism. Jeffrey Hart writes how Bush is too much of an ideologue to be a conservative in the Burkean sense. Bruce Bartlett writes how Bush is too much of a spendthrift to be a conservative in the fiscal sense And your truly writes how Bush has been too inconsistent and too incompetent to be a conservative in the foreign policy sense:
[D]octrinal disputes aside, Republicans like me are angry at Bush because he has frittered away one of the party’s greatest assets ? the belief that when it came to international relations, the GOP was the party of competence. Between 1965 and 2000, analysts gave Republican presidents better grades than Democrats in managing American foreign policy. The latest public opinion polls, however, give congressional Democrats a new edge on national security issues. Which is not surprising given the administration’s failures at matters that should be routine ? interagency cooperation, contingency planning, congressional consultations, alliance management and so on. In the eyes of his party, Bush’s biggest foreign policy sin is not his aims, or even his means. It’s that he has done the improbable ? he’s made the Democrats look like a credible alternative.
Enjoy your conservative crackup!!
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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