{"id":203,"date":"2011-08-17T21:26:59","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T01:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=203"},"modified":"2011-08-17T21:26:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T01:26:59","slug":"republican-party-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/08\/republican-party-blindness.html","title":{"rendered":"Republican Party Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beginning in 2000, with the election to the presidency of George W. Bush, the Republican Party enjoyed control over both<\/em> the legislative and<\/em> executive branches of government.\u00a0 Election Day, 2006, however, marked the beginning of the end of this era, and by November of 2008, voters had long since resolved to bring the Republicans\u2019 reign to a decisive close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While watching the Iowa Republican presidential primary debate, one could be forgiven for thinking that none of this had happened.\u00a0 With the sole exception of Ron Paul, there wasn\u2019t a single other candidate on the stage who so much as signaled regret over, much less repudiate (as Paul did), the very Republican Party agenda with which Americans became thoroughly disenchanted three years ago\u2014an agenda to which, judging from the candidates\u2019 utterances, Republicans remain committed today.<\/p>\n

To put it in terms of our contemporary political vernacular, President Bush\u2019s \u201cCompassionate Conservatism\u201d is apparently alive and well in the Republican Party of 20011.\u00a0 The foreign policy component of this agenda especially continues to elicit virtually unanimous, and not infrequently, impassioned, support from the establishment\u2014whether in its Washington or \u201cconservative\u201d media guises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exchange between former Senator Rick Santorum and Congressman Paul was particularly instructive in this regard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Santorum expressed unmitigated pride in having endorsed the Iraq War\u2014a seemingly intractable conflict undertaken for reasons that are as dubious as its objectives have been elusive.\u00a0 It was this issue more so than any other that explains the angst that the nation developed toward the GOP.\u00a0 Yet considering that neither the other candidates\u2014except, of course, for Ron Paul\u2014nor anyone else who originally supported this scandalous waste of life and treasure sought to correct Santorum, it is more reasonable than not to suppose that his pride over this eight year war is also theirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to this, Santorum gave expression to precisely the sort of hysteria over the prospect of a nuclear armed Iranthat informed our entry into Iraq.\u00a0 That is, he not so subtly indicated a readiness to involve Americain but another military adventure in the Middle East.\u00a0 From the silence of his competitors\u2014again, excepting Ron Paul\u2014and the \u201cconservative\u201d media\u2019s verdict that Santorum \u201cschooled\u201d Paul on the need for America to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, we can only infer that, its protestations to the contrary aside, the GOP has emphatically not <\/em>amended its ways.<\/p>\n

Then, just two days following the debate, Rick Perry formally entered the presidential race.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside for the moment Perry\u2019s record, there are a few simple considerations in connection to his candidacy that reinforce the impression conveyed by the Santorums of the Republican Party that the latter hasn\u2019t learned a damned thing from its misfortunes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, like President Bush, Perry has served as the governor ofTexas.\u00a0 This alone suffices to send chills up the spines of untold numbers of people for whom \u201cBush\u201d remains a four letter word in more ways than one.\u00a0 Even if this is where the comparisons between Bush and Perry ended, considering the extent to which Bush fatigue continues to inform perceptions of the Republican Party, they are enough to damage Perry\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

Second, Perry is not <\/em>just another Texas governor; it was by way of first serving as the lieutenant-governor <\/em>of Bush that he became <\/em>governor.\u00a0 In other words, Perry had a very close working relationship with the forty-third president.<\/p>\n

Third, Perry was recruited and groomed by the same GOP fixer that justly became known as \u201cthe architect\u201d of Bush\u2019s presidency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fourth, Perry once referred to Bush as his \u201cphilosophical soul mate.\u201d\u00a0 This is particularly telling.\u00a0 As far as I have been able to determine, Perry has never revoked this judgment. Presumably, what this means is that Perry and Bush share the same vision of the world\u2014and, thus, the same vision of politics.\u00a0 And what this <\/em>in turn evidently suggests is that while Perry has implicitly criticized the former president for his self-identification as a \u201ccompassionate conservative,\u201d he is disposed to govern similarly to the manner in which his predecessor governed\u2014i.e. as a \u201ccompassionate conservative.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 That is, he is not likely to govern as any kind of conservative at all.<\/p>\n

To this last point, the objection may be raised that inasmuch as he has presided over the creation of 40% of all of the private sector jobs in America, Perry has been a remarkably successful\u2014and conservative\u2014governor.\u00a0 This line invites more than one possible reply. Yet for now, we need note only that Bush was a very successful and reasonably conservative governor as well.\u00a0 After all, when the latter declared his commitment to a more \u201chumble\u201d foreign policy and \u201cacross-the-board\u201d tax cuts during his first campaign for the White House, there was at least nothing obvious in his gubernatorial record that would have forced us to call his sincerity into question.<\/p>\n

In truth, though, Santorum and Perry aren\u2019t really the issue here. \u00a0The issue is that Republicans still refuse to grasp both the extent to which the country persists in distrusting them as well as why <\/em>it distrusts them.\u00a0 I single out the two Ricks only because they are the most recent figures to epitomize this party-wide obliviousness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

originally published at The New American<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beginning in 2000, with the election to the presidency of George W. Bush, the Republican Party enjoyed control over both the legislative and executive branches of government.\u00a0 Election Day, 2006, however, marked the beginning of the end of this era, and by November of 2008, voters had long since resolved to bring the Republicans\u2019 reign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublican Party Blindness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican Party Blindness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beginning in 2000, with the election to the presidency of George W. 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