New Media Alliance - Randall H. Nunn

Heartsick and Angry

President George W. Bush is a good and decent man. That doesn’t count for as much as it used to. Millions of conservatives who voted for him in the last two elections believed he was a man of conservative principles who would make much of the opportunity that he was handed by his election victories. Instead, it is sad to say, President Bush has pursued consensus rather than principle and, in the process, has demoralized his strongest supporters, weakened his party and set the country on the path to elect a socialist.

When President Bush was reelected, there was talk of a realignment whereby the Republican Party would be ascendant for decades to come. So much was possible if the President moved quickly and forcefully to carry out his campaign promises and make government more responsive to the will of the people.

The steadfast loyalty of conservatives was rewarded by a Republican president and Republican majorities in Congress who grew the bureaucracy, overspent our tax money on wasteful programs and refused to fight for Social Security reform, tax code reform, enforcement of immigration laws or drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore. Our tax burden is worse than ever, our energy situation is a disaster and Social Security and Medicare are in desperate shape. When we look at our country today and the prospects for the next four years, is it any wonder that millions are frustrated and heartsick?

A president should lead and a president should engage his political opponents on matters of policy and principle. President Bush had the possibility of continuing the Reagan Revolution and truly changing for the better the relationship between the citizens of this country and their government. To do that required President Bush to effectively communicate his policies and programs and make the country understand the choices and the hazards of not taking action to deal with these issues. The inability to effectively articulate his vision and policies, along with the unwillingness to take on the media and liberal special interests, such as the environmental movement, doomed his second term. We deserved more.

Where is the consistency in a president who nominates a Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court? Where is any true understanding of limited government in a president who says he will veto McCain-Feingold, then signs it? Where is the effective leadership in a president who fails to control the bureaucracies in the CIA, the Justice Department or even his own Press Secretary? A good and decent man is small consolation when the lack of leadership and conservative principles botched the greatest opportunity of the last twenty years.

The Republican Party and the nation will take time to recover from the bumbling mediocrity of Bush’s second term. Seeing what happened these last four years makes one realize what a true giant Ronald Reagan really was. Many of us had hopes that the Bush presidency would build upon Reagan’s foundation and keep the light of freedom and individual liberty burning brightly in the “shining city on the hill.” Instead, we have spent and given away the nation’s treasure, lost control of a bloated and unresponsive bureaucracy, accommodated our enemies, failed to secure our borders, weakened our economy with ill-advised initiatives such as the ethanol mandate and transformed the “bully pulpit” into a dais for dithering.

Now that the heartsick phase is almost over, the anger begins to grow. Anger that we must dig our way out of this hole and retake the Senate and House of Representatives. Anger that the Republican Party has so many weaklings and incompetents in Congress. Anger at the misrepresentations from the Republican Party and the deceit in the words of our representatives in Congress.

In truth, the presidency has become too powerful and too imperial. The Congress needs to exert its power as a co-equal branch if it can be populated with true citizen legislators and not political hacks who use the positions as power bases for their personal interests and financial gain. Conservatives need to concentrate on electing conservative men and women who don’t look at bipartisanship and accommodation as a goal in itself.

No longer can we continue to elect the “lesser of two evils” and expect the direction of the country to change. Government is on its way to making itself our master and President Bush has not stood in the way. And much as I hate to say it, Senator McCain has not stood in the way of more government power either. It is time for a change and conservatives need to understand that they should not expect a change until four years from this coming November.

Randall H. Nunn