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Tuesday, October 26
 
Conservatives Against Bush

from the American Conservative:
Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed
to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for
generations. The launching of an invasion against a country that posed
no threat to the U.S., the doling out of war profits and concessions to
politically favored corporations, the financing of the war by ballooning
the deficit to be passed on to the nation’s children, the ceaseless drive to
cut taxes for those outside the middle class and working poor: it is as if
Bush sought to resurrect every false 1960s-era left-wing cliché about
predatory imperialism and turn it into administration policy. Add to this his
nation-breaking immigration proposal—Bush has laid out a mad scheme to
import immigrants to fill any job where the wage is so low that an American
can’t be found to do it—and you have a presidency that combines imperialist
Right and open-borders Left in a uniquely noxious cocktail.

from The Lone Star Iconoclast:
The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on
the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda. Today, we are
endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush
has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says
our country needs.

Four items trouble us the most about the Bush administration: his initiatives
to disable the Social Security system, the deteriorating state of
the American economy, a dangerous shift away from the basic freedoms
established by our founding fathers, and his continuous mistakes
regarding terrorism and Iraq.

from John Eisenhower:
The fact is that today’s “Republican” Party is one with which I am totally
unfamiliar. To me, the word “Republican” has always been synonymous with
the word “responsibility,” which has meant limiting our governmental
obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today’s
whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion.

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect
for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of
nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that
community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a
direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically
devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current
Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with
hubris and arrogance.


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