Bruce Bartlett in effect says that conservatives who are angry at
Barack Obama should
look in the mirror: "Until conservatives once again hold
Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will
have no credibility and deserve no respect." But even if he's
correct that conservative credibility has taken a well-deserved
hit because the right was too enamored of George W. Bush -- and I
think he is -- it doesn't follow that conservatives are wrong to
oppose a largely pointless stimulus bill, an increased federal
role in the provision of health care that will cost even more
than the Medicare prescription drug benefit, cap and trade, and
other Obama policies.
To put it another way: Just because conservatives didn't make
enough noise as Bush was running up a $1.2 trillion deficit
doesn't mean they should shut up now that Obama is jacking it up
to as much as $1.8 trillion. Obama supported Bush's TARP bailout,
as did more Democrats than Republicans in Congress. The Democrats
also favored an even more robust Medicare prescription drug
benefit than the one irresponsibly enacted by Bush and the
Republican Congress. And which of the policies that lead to our
current mess -- artificially low interest rates, loose money,
unfunded government spending, relaxed lending standards for
politically favored groups -- has Obama decisively broken with
now, much less opposed at the time? The Democrats were a little
better on the wars' contribution to the health of the state, the
Republican better on reining in Fannie and Freddie.
There are some gaps in Bartlett's history. He ignores the role
the Republican Congress played, alongside Bill Clinton, in
reforming welfare and cutting federal spending during the 1990s.
He acknowledges Ronald Reagan's tax increases but neglects to
mention that Reagan was a substantial net tax cutter, who brought
the top marginal tax rate all the way down to 28 percent by the
time he left office. Or as Bartlett -- who, by the way, told us
in 2003 that the Iraq war would be a
bargain -- put it in October 2003, "But at the end of the
day, [Reagan] cut taxes more than he raised them. That is why
conservatives forgave him and why they will probably forgive
George W. Bush as well."
There also some gaps in Bartlett's version of current events. He
describes conservative activists as "primarily Republican Party
hacks trying to overturn the election results." (Since when did
opposing policies with which one disagrees amount to overturning
election results?) But many of the new activists are as angry as
Republicans as they are Democrats. Just ask
John Cornyn and any number of other pro-bailout Republicans
who have been
booed off the stage at various tea parties.
If conservatives focus exclusively on trying to elect people with
the letter "R" next to their name no matter what they stand for
or what the consequences of their policies are, it will indeed be
self-defeating. Almost as self-defeating as letting the Obama
administration wreck the country now in order to spite the people
who were wrecking it seven months ago.
