Wall Street Opinion Journal | Peggy Noonan | June 1, 2007
President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.
What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker–“At this point the break became final.” That’s not what’s happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.
The White House doesn’t need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don’t even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.
For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don’t like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don’t like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
But on immigration it has changed from “Too bad” to “You’re bad.”
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic–they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, “We’re gonna tell the bigots to shut up.” On Fox last weekend he vowed to “push back.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want “mass deportation.” Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are “anti-immigrant” and suggested they suffer from “rage” and “national chauvinism.”
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Here is Belief Net’s, Rod Dreher responding to Peggy Noonans article.
Noonan to Bush: It’s over
I think this type of honest reckoning is essential for the future of the conservative movement. It’s time to talk about what conservatism looks like in the post-Bush era, and what changes, adjustments and adaptations it needs to make to remain relavent and competitive after January 2009.
Problems like widening income inequality, our expensive and inefficient health care system, and our dangerous dependency on foreign oil cannot be denied or postponed for discussion any longer. They urgently need to dealt with.
The question is whether or not we are going to see conservative solutions, or conservative denials. As someone who considers himself moderate to liberal on the issues I say that we need a conservative movement in the United States to maintain political balance and an aggressive competition of ideas.
We need a conservative movement that instead of arguing whether government has a role in solving problems, will show us how government can solve problems in manner that provides the greatest value to the taxpayers, with the least amount of bureaucracy and intrusion on personal or economic freedom.
Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party
Where Noonan has it wrong is that conservatives and the conservative movement had or has much of an partner in the GOP. The GOP has been controlled by libertarian and liberal business interests for at least 50 years now. They only tolerate the conservatives for votes. When it comes to their own interestes (cheap labor in the immagration case, or lower costs in the coming Republican led socialization of medicine) they are libertarian or liberal and/or liberal depbending on the case. Even with judges, they are only “conservative” because it conservative judges help control the flood of frivolous litagation. When it comes to real conservative issues, they have no interest and thus the non action on core conservative concerns (e.g. abortion.)
Conservatives will need to re-evaulate the assumtion that the GOP is the place for the conservative political aspirations..