Republicans Suck Too

Many think that since I disapprove of Obama, I must have loved Bush. The answer is a very emphatic no. Bush was, in many ways, a disaster. Whereas Bill Clinton announced that the 'era of big government is over,' Bush reversed course by expanding it again. There was No Child Left Behind, the Medical Drug Benefit, and uncontrolled spending that he allowed by shelving his veto pen for years. He signed McCain-Feingold! Bush was never a conservative. He, like so many before him, believed that charity was an appropriate function of government. Bush reversed the Republican success of 1994 with his 'compassionate conservative' view. The same Congress that had managed to balance the budget during the Clinton administration suddenly became a bunch of drunken sailors when Bush took over. Was that coincidence? I think not.

Even where Bush was good, it was a mixed bag. His foreign policy was an improvement over Clinton but he got entangled in nation building and couldn't clarify who we were fighting. Both of these remain problems today. We never set out to win the 'hearts and minds' of Germany or Japan, where we achieved clear victories. Hearts and minds is a strategy of the Cold War; escalation must be avoided lest it lead to nukes. That has not been an issue for two decades and yet we are still working on the hearts and mind strategy. Bush cut taxes - which is almost always good - but increased spending. He approved TARP and bailed out the car companies, paving the way for Obama's auto industry takeover and the $800 billion stimulus. He engaged in protectionism, albeit briefly.

We have a big government party; it is called the Democratic Party. They do an excellent job of being the big government party. There is no need to compete with them on that. Nonetheless, Bush seemed to think we needed another big government party, only one that was led by religious, rather than secular, values. Government is ill-suited to charity. Charity must be voluntary while everything government does is coercive.

I want a limited government that restricts itself to those powers outlined in the Constitution. Bush utterly failed to achieve that. However, given the option between the Big Government Party that is weak on defense and the Not Quite as Big Government Party that is somewhat better on defense, there isn't a lot of choice for those who want Small Government with strong defense.