David Brooks welcomes new, corrupt, Democraticish conservative movement

America's boboiest pundit emerged from behind his paywall earlier today to offer "The Savior of the Right". It's about... George W. Bush. And, Brooks... is not kidding.

...Bush hasn't abandoned conservatism; he's modernized and saved it... Almost single-handedly, Bush reconnected with the positive and idealistic instincts of middle-class Americans. He did it by recasting conservatism more significantly than anyone had since Ronald Reagan. He rejected the prejudice that the private sector is good and the public sector is bad, and he tried to use government to encourage responsible citizenship and community service.

[...much discarded...]

This is not to say that Bush's approach to government is fully coherent. The tragedy of the Bush administration is that it never matched its unorthodox governing philosophy with an unorthodox political strategy... With his policies, Bush could have built a broad coalition across the right and center of American life. Unfortunately, his political strategy was a base strategy, which led him to reinforce the orthodox divisions between the parties.

Despite all the mistakes that have been made, it is nonetheless true that Bush has ennobled and saved American conservatism...

A clear case could be made that Bush is an un-American fraud, intent on using the "positive and idealistic instincts of middle-class Americans" as well as a cowboy hat prop and a varying drawl to sell them - and almost everyone else in the U.S. - down the river.

The latest example is his attempt to show that the public sector is OK: promising to spend billions of dollars as a way of buying off lost popularity due to Katrina. The initial chunk of that money has gone to connected firms, some of which appear to have employed illegal aliens through subcontractors. Needless to say, Bush has not even a minor scheme to get the former residents of New Orleans working on the rebuilding. He's going to let his perverted idea of a "market" do the magic there. Great if you believe in corporate socialism, not so great if you're pro-American.

Previously coverage of this BushBot: "David Brooks or Tokyo Rose?"

Politics · Mon, 10/24/2005 - 19:57 · · Importance: 1