From a Fan of Bush's
Jonah Goldberg:
"Truth be told, I'm fairly disgusted with the GOP these days. Again, I think conservatives sacrificed a lot when we bought into the notion that the President of the United States doesn't need to be an effective communicator. Yes, it's nice to know that Bush's gut instincts are often right (though they're also often left), but his inability or unwillingness to make serious arguments hurts. And that style informs the GOP style across the board these days. Being the majority party in a system which so effectively empowers the minority party means that everyone has to listen to your arguments, it doesn't mean your arguments automatically win.
"So, when the majority party refuses to ground its actions in principle and defend them with reason it will, of necessity, look like it is ruling by whim rather than governing by conviction. With a few important exceptions, Bush's domestic priorities look like an attempt to buy support rather than persuade the public about anything. That works for Democrats because the Democratic Party is, at the end of the day, about bribing the electorate. The Republican Party is supposed to be the party which persuades the electorate that they'd be better off not accepting the bribes. And everyone -- America and the GOP included -- loses when the two parties get into a bidding war like divorced parents over who can spoil Americans more." (See Matthew Yglesias' response here, and Goldberg again here).
Nice segue into some shots at the Democrats: if the Republicans aren't careful, they'll slide down to the moral level Democrats are always at.
This started as a contribution to the discussion of the keynote speakers scheduled for the Republican convention, most of whom are pro-choice and probably at least somewhat opposed to Bush's massive tax cuts. Kevin Drum asked: are Republicans so ashamed of Bush's actual policies, and so worried about their political impact, that they dare not expose them on national TV?
As he weighs into this--saying Bush has always been a moderate, not really a conservative, etc., Goldberg makes the rather amazing statements above. Raising the question: is Bush the most inarticulate president ever? Or simply the most inarticulate since mass media became a factor?
Does this go with not really knowing or caring much about what anybody thinks--not really caring about policy at all, as Yglesias suggests? Kevin Drum says, a bit more carefully, that the present Bush has latched on to about two of Reagan's ideas, and simply sticks to them stubbornly with no real idea of how to implement them in a flexible way.
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