President Bush Failed Conservatives

This article is also available at Family Security Matters.


I spent a lot of time thinking about this column before putting pen to paper. The conclusion was in the back of my mind for some time, but I had resisted providing any kind of fodder for the left. Nevertheless, I believe the totality of the evidence must lead a true conservative to the conclusion that President George W. Bush failed conservatives on a number of levels: he expanded government fast or faster than Democrats have in the past, he failed to reign in spending, special interests, and could not bring true accountability to government, he failed to capture Bin Laden, and he began a war that was poorly planned and poorly executed in the immediate days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s army.

It is worth pointing out the key accomplishments of the Bush presidency, however. Bush deserves immense credit for realigning the national security institutions of the country in a manner that has, thus far, prevented another domestic attack by Islamic terrorists. This is no small achievement, and history will rightly recognize this accomplishment.

Secondly, President Bush deserves credit for nominating and securing the appointment of two remarkable Supreme Court Justices: Samuel Alito and John Roberts. These justices are more than qualified and are respected by those on the right and left as tremendous legal scholars who will seek justice throughout their tenures.

Third, Bush deserves credit for changing the strategy of the Iraq War at a time when things looked extremely bleak in Iraq. It took tremendous courage to stand firm and not lose site of the goal of victory. General Patraeus has performed marvellously and will long be remembered as an outstanding American general who just may have saved the war from an embarrassing defeat at worst, or a painful withdrawal in the least.


Finally, Bush deserves credit for delivering an important tax cut that was well deserved for the American people and provided a great deal of strength to the American economy in the wake of Enron.

The most disappointing aspect of the Bush presidency for conservatives is undoubtedly the massive expansion of government coupled with huge spending increases and a ballooning deficit and national debt. President Bush ran on a record of fiscal restraint and conservatism, but has delivered precisely the opposite. While a legitimate argument exists that the costs of the Iraq War and Afghan Wars made such spending inevitable, I would argue that both fiscal restraint and robust war funding were possible concurrently. What was not needed were massive spending increases on entitlement programs; specifically, the federal pharmaceutical drug program for seniors added $400 billion a year to government spending and ensured that another program now exists that will never go away.

Coupled with the massive spending was the failure to reform existing entitlement programs, most notably social security. While Bush did make an effort to reform, he failed to convince his own party that the reform was urgently needed. Thus, an opportunity was squandered to utilize a GOP controlled House and Senate to reform this poorly managed government behemoth. Additionally, in the wake of 9/11 Bush and the Congress saw fit to nationalize airport security workers and add thousands of unionized employees to the government payroll. The reorganization of security apparatuses into the Homeland Security Department also signalled one of the most significant restructurings of government in generations, but it failed to reduce the waste, size, and bureaucracy of government by one iota. Instead, we have one massive department that, like all government bodies, never go away, and will deliver limited benefits to the American people.

Perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses displayed by Bush was his hesitation on removing poorly performing appointees and advisers. This was displayed by his nomination of Harriet Miers, his failure to remove George Tenet after 9/11, the poor performance of Alberto Gonzalez, the short sightedness of Donald Rumsfeld, the lack of commitment with Colin Powell and State Department, and the arrogance and power-grabbing manner of Hank Paulson, who, in my opinion, should have been removed from his position for his handling of the economic crisis and the solution he proposed. It has been the President’s weakness to value loyalty over competence at times, and the political clout of appointees over their political values.

Despite Bush’s failures and my disagreement with him on a number of policies and issues, I admire him as a man of character and integrity who loves his family and his country deeply. He’s returned dignity to the White House so that government policies and executive strategies are the topics of the day, rather than scandal and distraction. He may have his reputation repaired by the clarity of historical hindsight. He is certainly no moron, as the left would characterize him, but he has failed conservatives on a number of important issues. He also deserves recognition for facing some of the most difficult challenges to America since WWII in terms of national security, economics, and social issues.

Conservatives (I don’t use the word Republicans intentionally) should learn important lessons from Bush’s successes and failures. It seems clear that a return to fiscal responsibility is essential to responsible governing. The GOP ceased to be the party of fiscal restraint and became, in essence, Democrat-lite. There was no distinction between the GOP and the Democrats in government spending, only what the spending was on.

Conservatives, and Republicans as well, came to power in force in 1994 promising reform, accountability, and restraint. They were able to follow through on these promises and were rewarded at the polls for 12 years as a result. Only when conservative values gave way to big government, corruption, and fiscal irresponsibility did the GOP begin sliding towards failure. The President doesn’t deserve 100% of the blame for this, he had willing accomplices in Dennis Hastert, Tom Delay, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, and others who did nothing to slow government spending or challenge the President on bureaucratic expansion.

Now despite the immense failure this year at the polls, conservatives (and the GOP) have the opportunity to do some serious soul searching, return to the values that brought them political success, and re-tool from the bottom up. It may be that a good blood-letting is exactly what is needed to return the GOP to it’s core beliefs and values.

In tough times, words from the wise can say a great deal to what we feel in our hearts and know in our minds. Some quotes from the great conservatives of the past might shed light on the proper path to a better future, not only for the GOP but for America and the world:

Ronald Reagan:

“The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution."

"Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets."

"I believe the highest aspiration of man should be individual freedom and the development of the individual."

Abraham Lincoln:

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

Barry Goldwater:

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed'' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests,'' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.”

The future is bright, we just need to remember how success was achieved in the past.