The Washington Times carries a story that is especially amusing given the “Bush is an extremist” argument made by many of the Democratic contenders:
President Bush is beginning to anger certain hard-line conservatives, particularly over fiscal issues, the way his father did in the year before he lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.
It’s not clear how deep the dissatisfaction goes, and whether it will translate to damage at the polls in November.
“I’m hearing a lot of anger,” says Richard Viguerie, the guru of conservative political direct mail. “I’m beginning, for the first time, [to hear] people talk about ‘it would not be the worst thing in the world if Howard Dean were president,’ because the size of government would stay still rather than increase 50 percent under a second Bush administration.”
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Pat Buchanan, whose challenge of President George Bush in 1992 is credited by some conservatives as leading to the Clinton presidency, says that if it weren’t for the ongoing war the current president would be facing a primary challenge.
I agree with Buchanan and Viguerie and share their frustrations. But, unlike them, I understand that one can’t be a pure ideologue and succeed as president. For one thing, governing in a Republic is partly representative, and the American people as a whole are neither particularly ideological nor overwhelmingly conservative. While most Americans don’t want to pay high taxes, they do seem to have an near-unending appetite for governmental programs. Furthermore, as a practical matter, the Republicans don’t control the Senate. The Democratic minority is an effective check on any impulse Bush would have toward radical conservatism.
