June 18, 2004

Steyn - Bush vs. Reagan. "Bush�s conservatism is neither a romance nor a balance sheet. He�s adopted a lot of the soft fatuities of the Left � �Leave no child behind� � and he doesn�t care how expensive they are to implement. On Labor Day last year, Bush said, �We have a responsibility that when somebody hurts, government has got to move.� With conservatives like that, who needs Sweden?

Reagan knew better: �Outside its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.� He didn�t say that as president or even as governor, but one Sunday night back in the Fifties as the host of General Electric�s weekly playlet �GE Theater�. There�s more conservative philosophy in the average Reagan intro to those old shows with Joan Crawford and Burgess Meredith than we�re likely to get in Bush�s keynote address at this year�s convention ..

Three years on [since 9/11], I think one can make the argument that this fuzziness about the precise nature of the enemy is one reason so many Americans have checked out of the war .. Bush had an opportunity to shift the broader cultural landscape in 2001 � to take on the enervated, self-loathing, multiculti self-absorption that in the days after 9/11 looked momentarily vulnerable. But he chose not to do so .. ". More MARK STEYN. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack