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  I am not a Bush Republican!
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Last EditedNone Entered  Aug 07, 2004 04:41am
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CategoryMinority Perspective
News DateSaturday, September 1, 2001 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionSeven months into the Bush administration, it is time to ask some hard questions, and speak some hard truths. I have made a few specific comments, and even a few criticisms of particular policies since Inauguration Day. But I have generally tried to avoid the "instant report card" mentality in order to give the president a chance to show with deeds what the character of his administration will be.

I write what follows with some reluctance, because I know that it will anger and disappoint many in the Republican party. But I believe there are things that need to be said, and that waiting will just make the situation worse.

Many conservatives believe that the Clinton presidency was the most dangerous time we have faced, as Americans and conservatives, in the history of the country. I do not share this belief. Rather, I believe that we are now entering that most dangerous era. For the bullet you hear is not the one that kills you. Organized and conscious advocacy of the principles that have made American liberty possible since the founding is unlikely to die at the hands of an explicit and avowed enemy like Bill Clinton. It is actually more likely that conservatives will passively accept political euthanasia for their cause at the hands of someone we have too readily believed could be entrusted with its wise care.

If moral conservatives understood and remembered this, they would not be as comfortable as many apparently are with the post-Clinton White House. Bill Clinton was traumatically bad for the country, but does that mean conservatives must shut their eyes to the real and unnecessary defects in the policies of his replacement? Are we justified, because we have gone through a bad time under Clinton, in lowering our standards? Are we justified in accepting policies we know do not correspond to the agenda that is right for the country? Are we justified in praising and pretending to be happy with an agenda that cannot be defended on conservative principle?

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