The one and only positive which we can take from the historical disaster known as the W Administration is that neoconservatism is dead. Its being killed off as we speak. Not by a progressive wave sweeping the nation, but by a revolt among Republican party wings not normally associated with each other: Chamber of commerce Republicans and faith based republicans.
Chamber of Commerce Republicans did quite well during the eight years preceding W, as Bill Clinton was the ultimate chamber of commerce president even if he was a Democrat.
Yet Clinton and his trusted aide Ron Brown were tireless boosters for American enterprise all over the world. Not only did they buy into globalization, but they made sure the US economy thrived in it.
The main opposition to Democrats post Clinton were not the business minded. The business minded under Clinton were too busy doing business and making tons of money to much care about the moral direction of the country, except maybe to pay lip service on the way to the bank.
W needed the faith based republicans to wrestle the nomination from McCain in 2000 and he made his pact with them. Or should I more correctly say Rove made his pact with them for him. In reality, Bush is a chamber of ommerce Republican. He is not a religious kook on the order of Dobson, Robertson, et al.
He is a mainstream Methodist for Chrissakes!
Which is why I disagree with our compatriots on the left who keep fanning the flames of paranoia in our ranks with their insistent rumors of impending Christian takeover of our cherished “democracy”, led by W with his bible in hand.
It aint gonna happen. The main men who truly arbitrate the Republican party are the money men, not the blood of christ men. And so it shall ever be.
And no, they are not one and the same.
Chamber of Commerce Republicans were not enamored of W in 2000 and still are not. They were less enamored of Gore, seeing him as a mushy sort of lefty idealogue intellectual sort like Jimmy Carter, all moralizing and dogooding without enough attention to the bottom line.
They voted for W because he was lowering their taxes. Period. All that followed, the lack of fiscal discipline, the illfated “war on Terror”, especially the sophomoric and expensive exercise in Iraq, the cronyism, the lack of fiscal responsibility even after the twin hurricanes, the botched management of government, all these the business republicans have swallowed with growing consternation.
“Whatever it takes to rebuild the gulf coast, but dont mind the deficits and lets make those tax cuts permanent!”
The C of C Republicans have finally had it. Now they see why Bush coulnt run even a small oil company. And, with the Miers nomination, which appears to be a deal to keep Roe v Wade untouched, the faith based Republicans whose support W needs to survive, have turned on him with the vengeance of, well, God.
Stay tuned. A civil war is brewing on the right.
