Son Of A Bush?!?

For Conservatives, Is MDS Really BDS?

Warning:

The following contains material that may be shocking to some people. Do not drive or operate heavy equipment while reading.

If you're like me, you write a lot of things that never get posted for one reason or another, but mostly because what you've written is so idiotic that it's too much to expect even people who read this blog to accept it. So it takes its place on the eternal clipboard, destined never to become a standalone piece, though still plenty good enough to be used in an engagement with liberals and other lesser beings.

But on rare occasions, someone else with real brains comes along and demonstrates what can be done when the same idea is explored by someone more experienced in coherent thought.

This is one such occasion.

The other day, I wrote what some would call an expose. Others would call it a theory, and still others might call it practicing medicine without a license. I'll leave that for you to decide, and you're certainly free to apply your own label.

In the piece, I said this:

What explains another Coulter column in which this time she not only derides McCain, but Republicans who vote for him?

Granted a President McCain might sign some bills conservatives find abhorrent, but would it be that much different in comparison to what George Bush has signed or would like to dign? McCain might sign a stem cell bill, but you've gotta believe that he'd veto some of the spending George Bush was only too glad to plant his signature on.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest that McCain Derangement Syndrome is actually Bush Displacement Syndrome.

In other words, what if a lot of the anger and hysteria directed at John McCain is really about George Bush, and that conservatives cannot, for whatever reasons, bring themselves to recognize the true source of their angst and outrage?

Because there's no doubt that Bush has done infinitely more to undermine conservatives than McCain has, yet you don't hear a peep about, much less condemnation of, Bush policies, his signed legislation, his spending, and his profound neglect of both executive responsibilities and conservative issues.

There are both subconscious and practical reasons why conservatives don't criticize Bush, especially at this late date and in an election year, but all that rage has to go somewhere, and not only is John McCain the perfect "candidate," but he actually continues to invite it.

So conservatives may simply be redirecting their anger while trying to head off further, and possibly even greater, destruction of their causes and values. The only problem is, MCCain was and is the best candidate the Republicans can put up

 As I mentioned above, I said it... but you never read it. As insightful as that was, I felt it lacked substance. It lacked specific examples, and most of all, it lacked Charles Krauthammer.

Well all that's changed. Today Krauthammer, who's not just a brilliant paraplegic but also an actual medical doctor, addressed the problem and amazingly, he avoided plagiarizing any of my ideas.

Note:

If your children have been reading along, you might want to have them leave the room at this point, or if you've been reading this to them as a bedtime story, check to make sure they're asleep before continuing. I'm sure they will be, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Reddy...?

Charles Krauthammer in his own words:

McCain's apostasies are too numerous to count. He's held the line on abortion, but on just about everything else he could find: tax cuts, immigration, campaign finance reform, Guantanamo he not only opposed the conservative consensus but also insisted on doing so with ostentatious self-righteousness.

The story of this campaign is how many Republicans felt that national security trumps social heresy.

The other half of the story behind McCain's victory is this: There would have been a far smaller Republican constituency for the apostate sheriff had there been a compelling conservative to challenge him. But there never was...

Romney (was) the final stop in the search for the compelling conservative. I found him to be a fine candidate who would have made a fine president. But until very recently, he was shunned by most conservatives for ideological inauthenticity. Then, as the post-Florida McCain panic grew, conservatives tried to embrace Romney, but the gesture was both too late and as improvised and convenient-looking as Romney's own many conversions.

Conservatives are on the eternal search for a new Reagan. They refuse to accept the fact that a movement leader who is also a gifted politician is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.

But there's an even more profound reason why no Reagan showed up this election cycle and why the apostate sheriff is going to win the nomination. The reason is George W. Bush.

He redefined conservatism with a "compassionate" variant that is a distinct departure from classic Reaganism. Bush muddied the ideological waters of conservatism.

It was Bush who teamed with Teddy Kennedy to pass No Child Left Behind, a federal venture into education that would have been anathema to (the early) Reagan.

It was Bush who signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.

It was Bush who strongly supported the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill.

It was Bush who on his own created a vast new entitlement program, the Medicare drug benefit.

And it was Bush who conducted a foreign policy so expansive and, at times, redemptive as to send paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan and traditional conservatives like George F. Will into apoplexy and despair (respectively).

Who in the end prepared the ground for the McCain ascendancy? Not Feingold. Not Kennedy. Not even Giuliani. It was George W. Bush. Bush begat McCain.

Bush remains popular in his party. Even conservatives are inclined to forgive him his various heresies because they are trumped by his singular achievement: He's kept us safe.

There you have it - straight and objective, and (regrettably) with none of the hatred I have for George Bush. I never thought to frame it in terms of "begetting," but that's exactly it. McCain is every bit as conservative as Bush, and maybe more so. But people have had more than enough of Bush, they just can't admit it. Because they're deranged... and I'm anything but sure Bush caused it..

But not voicing their displeasure for George Bush early and often did serve a purpose... it begat John McCain.