He’s a George Bush conservative. Seriously. In coming decades, his particular nexus of conservative ideas embraced and conservative ideas rejected/ignored will be associated with his name.
“I made a name by being compassionate,” according to an interview he gave this morning.
He’s a social conservative (though not a ‘classic’ one)…thats about the extent of his conservative credentials. His fiscal policies, if anything, have been all over the board…I’d consider him a fiscal liberal who has attempted to appease the fiscal conservatives in his party by tossing them an occasional bone. He certainly is not a classic small government conservative!
Even on the social side, what has he done to push though, say, the banning of abortion for instance? A lot of TALK, but (thankfully) he really has done next to nothing on this score in any meaningful way (despite all the hand wringing about this subject prior to his first election). In addition, besides shutting down the gay marriage thingy, he’s really done nothing to ramp up anti-gay legislation (which one would expect from a REAL social conservative).
Not that I’m unhappy about Bush’s lack of initiative on the social conservative side (though guys are scary IMHO), but really…the guy’s ‘conservative’ creds, when looked at dispassionately, are a lot of hot air…when they aren’t missing completely.
-XT