Reader/Frequent commenter/Friend Mike McKain asks a question in the comments for this post:

How widespread do you think the distaste from Bush is in the mouths of most Republicans?

I think it is pretty widespread at this point Mike, and there are a couple reasons why. For the purposes of explaining this phenomenon, I will divide Republicans who are not happy with Bush into two groups: "The base," or conservatives and libertarians who's disagreements with the President is mostly ideological, and "the disappointed," those who may disagree with the President, but who's beef is motivated by Bush incompetence.

As for "The base," Bush's backing of the Senate immigration bill is merely the nail in the coffin for many conservatives. I for one did not expect Bush to be all that great on immigration, but it still angers me that the leader of the party does not listen to its primary supporters.

I think Peggy Noonan's recent WSJ Op-ed captures this well:

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."

That list are all points of contention that many in "the base" have with President Bush, but as Noonan notes, immigration seems to hurt more because recently we haven't just been ignored, we've been directly affronted, with the President occasionally suggested we're unpatriotic, an insult usually reserved for those "on the other side."

The frustration grows when you consider that Bush has stopped defending anything that isn't the Senate immigration bill or Alberto Gonzalez. If his supporters are expected to fight battles over Iraq, support from the President would certainly do a lot of good.

Bush's first term was a rousing success, but his second term has been a miserable failure (though he had help from the Republican Congress). This is where "the disappointed" Bush supporters come in. I summarized Bush's second term in December, while lamenting the loss of UN Ambassador John Bolton:

Thank you for nothing, Mr. Bush. Thank you for squandering your political capital on issues that went nowhere (Social Security), nominations that were mainly laughed at (Harriet Miers), anti-conservative big government programs (Medicare Part D), and allowing the Democrats to shape the debate on Iraq. You must realize that this has cost you credibility on both the left and the right, and allowed you to squander anything meaningful out of your second term (besides John Roberts, and the later reversal of Miers to Alito).

I also should have mentioned on that list FEMA director Michael Brown (a lot of what happened in New Orleans was not in Bush's control at all, but that doesn't mean that 'Brownie' was competent, either). I'd also add to the list the should-resign Alberto Gonzalez, of whom I've never been fond.

I would characterize what Mike calls 'distaste' as frustration. Conservatives are frustrated Bush is following a hawkish neoliberal agenda, and the plain incompetence within the Administration certainly just makes it worse.

Labels: Bush

Posted by Ryan S. on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 11:40 AM | Permalink |