Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
I have a question for the board:
I consider myself a moderate Republican. I am sure Mr. Megaloman would consider me a Rino. However, I don't understand why people consider George W. Bush such a conservative. He is a little more conservative than me on the social issue. But on those he mostly just talks a lot and does nothing (e.g. not really pushing for the marriage amendment etc.). On foreign policy we see eye to eye, although I consider the whole neocon thing as following in the Wilson and Kennedy tradition. Aggresively pushing for democracy around the world is not a traditional conservative foreign policy position. Usually the conservatives only do stuff that is in the national interest. On Fiscal issues I don't think Bush is conservative at all. He has not cut domestic spending significantly - he passed a rather small tax cut - and I would be pushing for much more drastic changes to social security. I would have never pushed the Medicare drug prescription thing. So if I am not a conservative Republican, and Bush is to the left of me on many issues, why do so many people see him as this right wing fanatic?
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The tax changes that have been made since he took office (I am trying to avoid making it all him -- Congress was of course also involved) is not small if they are all made permanent. The costs just balloon after 2009. It was an underhanded thing -- it
looks not that expensive on the surface, in the 5-year and (at the time) 10-year projections, but he knows (or his people know) that once a tax change is passed, no one wants it to sunset (which is the only way those tax changes could be presented as having a relatively small effect on revenue) so they extend it.
And he panders to the religious right, which I don't like. I think he oversees a pretty socially conservative administration -- most notably the FCC guy (yes, I know, now out) and Ashcroft (yes, I know, now also out). It will be interesting to see how this goes in his second term. By appointing people like this, he effectively pushes the country in a more socially conservative direction without having to take any direct action. Also kind of sneaky.
While his foreign policy may not be in the traditional conservative camp, I find his jingoism and cowboy attitude offensive and annoying.
I wouldn't say I see him as a right-wing fanatic, though, so I may not be the audience you are looking for answers from. I just don't like the direction he's taking the country in a fiscal sense (with the sneaky tax cuts and the expansion/addition of a (?) new entitlement program) or a social sense (Ashcroft, FCC, judges he's appointed or tried to appoint, stuff he says -- just by yapping about it, he's making some of the wacky social stuff seem more mainstream).
