Why are conservatives abandoning Bush?Mike Rappaport

David Greenberg, who I rarely agree with, writes at the New York Times blog that conservatives claim to be abandoning Bush because he has not acted as a real conservative, but in reality they are abandoning him because his conservative policies have failed and the American people will soon reject them:

Far from a subversionof modern American conservatism, Bush represents its fulfillment.

But now Republicans are deserting Bush. Businessmen andevangelicals, libertarians and social moderates are all astir. Thereason isn t that Bush failed to espouse their causes any more thanReagan did. From the Iraq War on down, after all, his policies havealso been their policies backed by their legislators, upheld by their judges, championed by their journalists.

No, the reason so many are complaining about Bush or today s G.O.P.is that their policies haven t worked out very well. Since the 2004election, majorities of Americans have turned against them. Whatconservatives like Chuck Hagel and Bush s other right-wing detractorsfear in their bones and not without reason is that majorities ofAmericans will soon also turn against the creed of conservatism itself.

Well, I think there is something to be said for this.  But I would put the point differently.  In many areas where Bush’s policies have not worked so well, the Bush people have governed incompetently.  The troubles at Justice are a good example now.  And I would include the troubles in Iraq.  Blaming this on conservatism is not quite right.

In several other areas, though, Bush has not behaved as a conservative, or if he has, he has behaved as a big government conservative, which is not a conservative in my book.  Medicare prescription drugs.  No vetoes of spending bills.  Etc.  The point is that in most areas Bush hasn’t really tried to be a Reagan conservative, and that is why he is being blamed. 

Much of Bush’s legacy will be John Roberts and Sam Alito.  But, without some luck, it would include Harriet Miers.  The nomination of Harriet Miers was not conservatism.  It was incompetence.