Conservative Forum Calls Bush a Socialist With No Principles

We’ve often found it peculiar that so many conservative bloggers would blindly back up everything Bush has done considering how far he has strayed from both both traditional American values and conservative values. Support for limited government has been replaced by big government based upon Christian fundamentalism which has become more intrusive in individual’s lives.

The Cato Institute is one group which would be expected to oppose the direction Bush is taking the country. The Washington Post reports on a discussion of Bush with two speakers who were highly critical of him.

The talk was moderated by Cato Institute executive vice president David Boaz who blamed Bush for “a 48 percent increase in spending in just six years,” a “federalization of public schools” and “the biggest entitlement since LBJ.”

The first speaker was former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett, author of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legac.” Bartlett called the Bush administration “unconscionable,” “irresponsible,” “vindictive” and “inept.” He predicted a large tax increase “to finance the inevitable growth of government that is in the pipeline that President Bush is largely responsible for.” He also said many fellow conservatives don’t know about the “quite dreadful” traits of the administration, such as the absence of “anybody who does any serious analysis” on policy issues. He also said that “If Bush were running today against Bill Clinton, I’d vote for Clinton.”

The second speaker was Andrew Sullivan, author of the forthcoming book “The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back.” Sullivan called Bush “reckless” and “a socialist,” and accused him of betraying “almost every principle conservatism has ever stood for.” “This is a big-government agenda,” he said. “It is fueled by a new ideology, the ideology of Christian fundamentalism.” Bush shows “complete contempt” for democratic processes, torture of detainees, ignoring habeas corpus and a “vast expansion of the federal government.” The notion that the “Thatcher-Reagan legacy that many of us grew up to love and support would end this way is an astonishing paradox and a great tragedy.” Sullivan also said, “You have to understand the people in this administration have no principles. Any principles that get in the way of the electoral map have to be dispensed with.”