Some Conservatives Step Up (Finally)

For me personally, one of the most depressing aspects of Bushism has been the reaction to it from traditional conservatives. There have been some defectors, but not nearly enough. The first to jump off the Bush/Cheney train (after Senator Jim Jeffords) were environmentally minded conservatives. Loosening arsenic standards was a spring 2001 scandal. It was followed by the 9/11 cover-up, and then by a steady drumbeat of assaults deriving mostly from the Department of Interior. Eventually EPA Secretary Christie Todd Whitman resigned her post. More queasiness followed. Next it was Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neill’s chance to throw up his hands in disgust. Yet, surprisingly few economic conservatives showed any sympathy for O’Neill.

Next came, unsurprisingly, veterans of the State Department and those that had devoted a lifetime to diplomacy and the United Nations. These were the people John Brady Kiesling was speaking of when he explained his resignation before the war.

But what I’ve discovered from the people who’ve searched me out is that there seems to be this incredible unhappiness in the traditional American internationalist foreign policy community that the president, just out of ignorance and ideology, is taking apart what these people had built through careers.

The State Department’s protest was followed closely by a related revolt from the intelligence community that became particularly acute after the outing of Valerie Plame.

Finally, this past spring, we had the revolt of the Generals.

To be sure, there have been other mini-revolts revolving around embryonic stem-cell research, social security reform, Terri Schiavo, the fallout from Abu Ghraib, the incompetence of Katrina preparations and relief efforts, and the revelations about warrantless domestic surveillance. But none of it has served to peel off a substantial portion of the traditional Republican base. Poll numbers are definitely down for George W. Bush, but there has not been any really strong indicators of a fundamental realignment of the national parties.

So, I have been waiting a very long time to see something like this (see below). A series of traditional conservatives have penned essays on why the GOP deserves to lose the midterm elections and they will be appearing in the October 2006 issue of the Washington Monthly.

I applaud these people for their courage of convictions. I, too, would like to see a Republican Party that I can trust to govern this country from time to time and to carry out oversight of the Democrats when they are in power.

Let’s quit while we’re behind
By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi
By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control
By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance
By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House
By Bruce Fein

Idéologie has taken over
By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on
By Richard A. Viguerie