These are tough times for conservatives. Second terms are always risky because the rubber hits the road and we find out what a president's true beliefs and causes are. For all his conservative rhetoric, Bush is no conservative when it comes to spending, or governing. I laugh at liberal partisans who point to the post-Katrina aid debacle as an example of Bush's failure. Sorry, that was a "big government" failure. And, oddly, a state and local government failure. Was there cronyism? Sure. Did you point out Clinton's cronyism? Sorry, no points. Everyone failed the test, including Bush for his small part. And the people of New Orleans paid a dear price as did many others.
The hatred with which they point at the "tax cuts for the wealthy" and want them eliminated is similarly laughable. "We're running deficits, " they scream. "Clinton balanced the budget! " Oh, right. It wasn't a contrarian republican Congress that obstructed his spending programs, causing him to aver, "the era of big government is over! " It was his fiscal discipline. A discipline conspicuously absent in every other area of his career (and life.) What's missing today is the contrarian majority Clinton "enjoyed. " Eliminating tax cuts (which do stimulate the economy) would be disastrous. Why can't anyone see that we have a spending problem?
But it is the hatred directed at Bush that is so notable about these times. Hateful rhetoric. Hateful protests. Hateful comments by elected leaders. Shamefully hateful comments by the leader of the Democrat Party. The completely shameful use of racism as a political trump. The democrats aren't opposed to Bush. They HATE him. And their leaders make it OK to hate him, too. And so they become the party of "I don't know much, but I hate him. " Great platform. That should help move things along.
Their excuse is that Bush has divided the country. Not true. They have chosen to hate him and everything he does, to the neglect of their own agenda. They are blinded by their success. Could a democrat president get the mammoth "No Child Left Behind" spending bill passed. No chance. Could a democrat run the type of deficits Bush is running without being called a tax-and-spend liberal? No chance. Even the Supreme Court appointments of Roberts and Miers are democrat successes. Neither was on any conservative's short list of nominees.
But the hatred drones on. Elected officials, anti-war protestors, party leaders. Ask any democrat to step down off their soap box and point to what Bush did that was divisive. After you get them to stop screaming about the war (which will probably require an injected sedative) see if there's anything else. They should love his spending, his governmental tinkering, huge government initiatives and takeovers. They can't tell when they're winning. But they sure do know what hatred is and to whom they should direct it.
