Squandering a Legacy

President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.

Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal about the ways in which Bush the elder and now Bush the younger have both failed to understand the great legacy of Ronald Reagan. Because of this lack of understanding they have, each in his own way, worked against the conservative base of the Republican party. The result has been needless damage done to the party by the abandonment of the conservative principles that gave the party its victories in the 80s' and early 90s'. The victory of the Clintons, for example, can be tied directly to the failures of the first Bush administration when it broke its pledge not to raise taxes.

The current President presented himself as a conservative in order to win election, but quickly ditched that camouflage as soon as it was convenient to do so. The result has been to put the party in a continuous crisis mode in a time when steady leadership would have been more advisable. Serious times require serious leadership, and preferably without unnecessary distractions. But this President has insisted on following a liberal agenda and hoping that it would set "a new tone" among the beltway elites. The tactic has been less than satisfactory.

Indeed, trying to make friends with the Angry Left is not possible, nor is it even needed in order to run the country, as long as one leads with conservative ideas. Reagan proved this by both word and example. But this President has squandered that legacy, and now the conservatives of the party are going to have to re-build it after the damage that these two Bushes have done. It will be difficult, but it is also unavoidable.