Crossposted from Moral Questions Weblog.
There is an eery silence in the blogosphere since Bush’s speech. I’m amazed that no one has appreciated the significance of the speech. Everywhere I look–Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, Mydd–I only see the standard kneejerk complaints of incompetence and cronyism. That’s well and good–and true–but, hello? Doesn’t anyone get it? We just won.
Well, at least one person gets it. A lone blogger at Dailykos, Rockdart, writes:
They must be – the conservatives I’ve seen talk about this are up in arms. Suddenly we’re hearing about Bush’s job approval numbers being low and that he may actually be incompetent. That this was an FDR or LBJ speech – not a Reagan or G.H.W. Bush speech – these people don’t back it.
Equality? That racial problems are a major cause of poverty? Homesteading? They talk of the price tag being too high. Scarborough mis-quoting the cost of Iraq, saying that the reconstruction would run more than the Iraq war… going straight to the fact that Bush loves to spend, spend, spend – but really no regard for the fact that we’re talking about an American city and American Citizens.
But the door’s been opened. The Republicans saw it right away – ‘what about the mayor of Detroit? He’ll say I have poverty, how about some of these plans to counter it in my city’ (paraphrasing Matthews).
He’s exactly right. But its not just an opening, its and ideological admission of defeat. Brian Bell commented in the thread saying:
Activist government is back with a vengence, and its worst enemies have been forced to embrace it on a grand scale. Liberals should be ecstatic about what Bush is proposing. This positions them perfectly in the coming years. I’m sorry, I just don’t see a down side here.
As for Bush, the rest of his term will be dominated by one of the biggest domestic spending programs in our history. His base will hate it.
I need to stop. I’m tearing up.
