Rethinking Bush

I never thought I would say this, but I now think President George W. Bush was kind of moderate - at least as compared to the current Republican party. I really thought that his party might see him as a failure, but I didn't think they would see him as not conservative enough.

If you listen to the debates though, his big policies are liabilities for current GOP candidates. Rick Santorum had to awkwardly distance himself from No Child Left Behind. No candidate will touch Bush's immigration policies. And it seems that Medicare Part D is unpopular among some of the candidates (depending on whether they are trying to be consistent or would rather pander to seniors). 

To be clear, Bush and Rove were trying to craft a permanent majority by going to the middle on these key issues: education, senior's health care, and immigration.  The current Republican Party instead seems uninterested in building a majority and would rather focus on ideological purity. (Hopefully this means they won't get a majority.) 

It scares me to say that I actually long for the days of Bush's perhaps somewhat disingenuous "Compassionate Conservatism" if only because the current GOP is so far from compassionate. They fight for tax cuts for the rich and cuts to programs for the poor. They are opposed to spending on sensible programs that are good for long term economic growth, like education and infrastructure - the former of which is also compassionate and would help people escape poverty.

On foreign policy, I thought Bush's embrace of the neo-conservatives was as far right as anyone could go. And yet some of the candidates are determined to go farther. They are calling for putting troops back into Iraq (after Obama followed Bush's withdrawal timeline). And their talk of war with Iran seems even worse than Bush would have allowed. But worse than all of that, they are moving away from Bush's support of freedom and deciding that some countries are too Muslim for freedom.

So yes, I am admitting that I wish the GOP were more like the way Bush envisioned it. I hate even saying that. But that is how far the GOP has moved - it makes me long for President Bush. In fact, if Jeb Bush were to become the candidate through a brokered convention, I would breathe a huge sigh of relief.