Conservatives Should Criticize Bush When He Deserves It

03 Feb, 2004 by John Hawkins

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Here’s an excerpt from an email sent to Andrew Sullivan that I thought was worth addressing…

“Many conservatives are b*tching and moaning about some of the legislation, some of the compromises, and lack of spending control; and some criticism is definitely warranted. But one cannot b*tch about the agenda, since (Bush) laid it out on the table as clear as day when campaigning.”

To the contrary, conservatives can and should “b*tch about the (Bush) agenda” when he strays from conservative values.

“But Hawkins, but Hawkins, you guys voted for him. So it’s like you endorsed his agenda.”

Hey, I’ve got news for you; we don’t have an unlimited number of viable candidates for President to choose from. Now if conservatives had a **REAL** choice between say Tom Delay, Jonah Goldberg, Thomas Sowell, & George Bush — and we voted for George Bush — you’d be right to say, “stop b*tching”.

However, that’s not how the political process works in the real world. In reality, conservatives first had a choice between George Bush and John McCain and they chose the more conservative candidate. Then they had a choice between Bush and Gore and again, conservatives chose the best candidate out of the two.

But, that doesn’t mean we should hold our tongues when Bush, on certain issues at least, acts more like Ted Kennedy than Ronald Reagan. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m a conservative first and a Republican second and if conservatism is best served by going after a Republican, it doesn’t bother me one bit to do it.