Who is President George W. Bush? Is he the passionate conservative he claims?
I am finding myself asking that question a lot these days as I see over and over, issues that concern conservatives go undone. If the President were serious about conservative causes, his ardent conservative supporters would have seen a whole lot more action than we are seeing presently. Conservatives have definitely been vocal to the Bush administration about the causes they support. And we are still trying to get the President’s attention on important key issues.
For example, the effort to fully protect our borders has become a joke. Everything is now being approached for political purposes, and not necessarily for our nation’s protection. We are at war, and leaving an open border screams, “Come get me!” Half of the reason Washington is not immediately cracking down on the border is because they are pandering to certain groups of people in our country, and it has become epidemic as politicians and the President try to please everybody to make themselves look good.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not attacking the President, but I am questioning his methods, because he’s not fully backing up what he says. For example, if we are going to be tough on terror, let’s be tough on terror without trying to worry about what others will think of us.
I’ve spoken about Bush’s humility in the past, but was that merely a front before the cameras? I wonder, what’s going on behind the scenes?
True conservatism has been watered down in an effort to gain a political following. The hefty negative price paid is a society that is in danger of losing its moral compass and traditional values.
It’s quite telling when during most of his term, the President has touted principle, values, and compassionate conservatism. The term “compassionate conservatism” came up just last year in March when the President visited my city to talk about his Social Security plan. As a person who proudly shared the stage with him as one of his ardent supporters, I remember that during that speech, he talked about the need to show compassion in society. If you see someone who is hurting, help them, etc.
I remember backing President Bush wholeheartedly then. I thought, “Here’s a man with conscience and heart.”
Currently, to me, the President’s words seem to me like a case of, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
President Bush has had to play defense these days to deflect criticism on his job performance. But if he would stick to what he originally campaigned on, leading the charge, putting strong emphasis on values, he will regain the respect of conservatives who he has likely abandoned.
Conservatives close to the President aren’t very happy either. The October 23rd issue of TIME magazine (pages 64-66) highlighted the White House experience of David Kuo, a former assistant to President Bush and Deputy Director of Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives program. Mr. Kuo reveals in his new book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, how some in the Bush administration shrugged off and talked about those in the religious community behind closed doors, but courted them during election time. The President would earmark funds to go to specific outreaches in the faith community to help, for example, the destitute and broken. A new drug treatment initiative was to receive $3 billion, but that money never went toward the program.
Some in the Bush administration went as far as to call Christians who were politically involved “nuts.” The truly, dedicated people who thought they had the President’s backing were called out of their name by an administration who they thought were their friends.
Even the Faith-Based Initiative was considered by some of the White House staff as ”the F-ing Faith-Based Initiative.” Obviously, the staff wasn’t tactful in hiding their disgust for the program.
Who is President George W. Bush? If he indeed snubbed evangelicals, then the President’s assertion of being the conservative leader have been false.
Republicans have been about values and securing conservative causes, up to a point. So to back peddle on the conservative agenda makes President Bush and his staff pseudo conservatives. It’s quite disconcerting as many have been led to believe that the President truly supports conservative causes.
In an age where Christianity is becoming more (and wrongfully) vilified, all I need to see is a leader of strength and veracity to fight back and declare our traditions and Christian heritage to remain in tact across this nation. The entire group of Republican representation in Washington could learn to work together in unity on conservative issues. As we prompt and let our leaders know where we stand, we should expect that they will deliver in Washington, that they will be just as concerned as we are. Conviction and character is lacking in Washington. Those who say they are Christian are hypocrites if they are playing others for a fool in order to stay in power.
Should one champion the conservative belief, he should back them up…to make good on his/her promises. As a President who has declared Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, I would have expected more from President Bush. I would think that his faith would reflect back into his actions.
As a conservative Christian, I will continue to pray for the President and his administration, but I will continue to question the President’s motives for conducting business the way he has, and why he has ignored key important issues facing our country today.
Does the President know that mid-term elections are approaching in less than a month, and that we are at war?
If he wants to keep a majority in the House and Senate, perhaps he should re-focus on just why he won a second term.
Those ”Values Voters” played a huge part in it. And we aren’t going away.
Related Reading
Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed
*Felicia (Fee) Benamon is a political columnist who writes for various conservative sites including RenewAmerica.us, Daley-Times Post, Renaissance Women ( http://www.rwnetwork.net/ ) , Capitolhillcoffeehouse.com, TheConservativeVoice.com, Mensnewsdaily.com, ConservativeCrusader.com, and other news sites like AmericanChronicle. Felicia also does freelance writing/reporting in her area. She hails from a military background, and has been politically active since the 2000 elections. She has also done conservative talk radio, airing her concerns about the situations we face today.
You may email Felicia: Feereports@aol.com.
Felicia, I gave up on GW about the 2nd year into his first term. Rush to judgement? Maybe. Here’s a short list of why GW has very little in common with conservatives:
A Savage conservative once said, “Borders, language, culture.” Mr. Bush is not only dissolving our Souther border, but also our Northern. It’s called the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a.k.a., the North American Union, and it’s put together by the Council on Foreign Relations. Although it’s public knowledge, it’s going on at top speed while America sleeps. Just what the Doctor ordered. We don’t have enough globalism infecting our court decisions, and not enough e coli infecting our spinach by turd worlders who deficate on the goods (forgive my cultural insensitivity) and bring their TB to my table. So Mr. Bush doesn’t believe in borders. Minus one.
Mr. Bush also…
…has swollen the government beyond anything recognizable as fiscally responsible,
…has enmired us in a prescription drug boondoggle that’s sure to burn out the bilge pumps,
…has sent our troops to fight suicide machines in hand to hand combat using peashooters, and when they accidentally kill the enemy, gives them a free “go to jail and rot” card (Ok, so he doesn’t actually send them to jail. He just remains absolutely silent while they are railroaded.),
…has called the Minutemen vigilantes,
…has called talk radio an echo box,
…obstinantely, positively, stubbornly, absolutely, against the overwhelming will of the people, intends to grant amnesty to illegals in our country,
Minus 5000.
I think I understand Mr. Bush’s globalistic tendencies. He’s stated plainly enough that he believes that the strongest desire of humanity is freedom. So he wants freedom for Iraq and hope for our neighbors to the south. In his simple one-step recipe this bakes a nice big loaf of one happy earth. Well, all my life I’ve heard the people I now identify as liberals yabber about the same garbage: freedom, equality, opportunity, enfranchisement.
WRONG. Not everybody wants freedom. Some want to be bound up like mummies and whipped. Some want to subjugate and cut off heads. Most people don’t even know what freedom is. Americans think it’s 500 digital channels and cool downloadable ringtones. Mr. Bush’s thinking, like illiberals’, is quite muddled. Yes, he has a good heart, but so do a lot of dopes I know.
JJTAUP:
Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you mentioned the North American Union issue, I’ve known about it and have written about it as well. I have had too many questions about what’s going on behind the scenes with this administration not to have said anything.
I agree with you.
Felicia,
Without hesitation and without a second thought I and many others are asking and pondering the same questions. I’m not surprised by David Kuo’s disclosure and here’s why. It was very strange that a man of faith as we’ve be told, would by any standard not ask some hard and penetrating questions of Chaney and Rumsfeld.
When Chaney cussed another elected representative, he was not called out on it nor was he or the President apologetic. Strike one. Secondly, Chaney convened a meeting of oil executives for what purpose that could/should not be disclosed to the public? If gas supplies and prices had remained stable throughout the war as would be expected, as a precaution the meeting would have made sense. They didn’t and his stock portfolio while tucked away in a trust, most surely escalated in value faster than $3/gallon gas! Strike two.
As for Rumsfled, like Chaney a rerun for office so many years later, he does not make sense at all given his previous experience. I understand that the Dept of Defense, Pentagon, et al, has way too many opinions and career pay checks. The many faces of Eve, errrr, mmm, I mean, the many security agencies were in need of a remake to streamline the passing of critical info. However, it takes a real moron to fail on so many levels of planning for the beginning, middle and end of a war and the subsequent needs a society will have based in part on all the decisions made for the war. American war practice is pathetic at best. War is war and any resultant loss of both military and civilain life would be tragic, but the outcome is what we’re looking for. This is the basic failure in the war department. As for Rumy, not only is it apparent he did not yield on troop levels, he alienated both those that were plain stupid war birds but those that were pragmatic in their understanding of planning prewar and postwar. Strike three.
I have grown weary of career politicians and the birds off the bow that they attract. The current excess of political fallout on the Redneckublican party is further evidence that what started out in the Reagan years has long ago become tarnished..in fact, it is now easy to see that it was plastic with silver colored spray!
Additional questions should be asked about the very makeup of Congress as it is conducted today. With any proposed bill having to make it through “committee”, the Senior Senator can kill at his discretion anything not deemed “desireable”. How did the Constitution become so hollow? How did “We the people” become a nation ruled by so very few?
Do not be surprised then by the lack of character by those we see running our country day to day. Mr Pres may be sincere or perhaps not. Perhaps he is just a poor manager…that is more what I view of him, having been managed poorly myself by so many. It then is easy to recognize the good managers I’ve had in my short life. Character always leads by example, and while others may not necessarily follow, they must be held accountable for poor choices. This is the only evidence the Pres offers for public examination..the lack of accountability to those who work for him.