My friend Chad at CCK has a provocative post in response to one of mine on the Democrat's confusion over Iraq. Chad argues that conservatives in general are part of a "personality cult" devoted to Bush. I think that my colleague, Professor Schaff, makes short work of this claim here and here. In general, conservatives have not been much prone to hero worship of any kind. There is some of that, to be sure, with regard to Ronald Reagan. But even there prominent conservatives are not afraid to challenge the consensus, as George Will shows.
In this winter of their discontents, nostalgia for Ronald Reagan has become for many conservatives a substitute for thinking. This mental paralysis -- gratitude decaying into idolatry -- is sterile: Neither the man nor his moment will recur. Conservatives should face the fact that Reaganism cannot define conservatism.
The reason that conservatives are not much given to personality cults is that we have a pretty cautious, if not outright dim view of human nature. We have our heroes-Reagan, Thatcher, Churchill-but we do not expect them to be perfect.
Chad says:
They are completely enamored with Dear Leader. If you criticize Dear Leader, you are criticizing your country, so don't do it. Or so the story goes .....
That's what Republicans have swallowed whole and those that continue to believe it (and I think I have to count Blanchard among them) are the same remaining few who think President Bush is doing a great job in Iraq and by extension the War on Terra.
I would like to see an example of a conservative who says or believes that criticizing Bush means "criticizing your country." I have certainly never made such a claim, because I do not believe it. Moreover, I do not think that there is anything unpatriotic about criticizing one's country. Both conservatives and liberals have strong traditions of criticizing American society and government, and that is as it should be.
Nor have I argued that "President Bush is doing a great job in Iraq." Consider, for example, the current "surge" policy. Its either working or it isn't. If it isn't, then that's hardly to Bush's credit. If it is, then why did we wait so long to try it? The best that one can say about Bush's Iraq policy from the beginning is that he had a policy, which is more than one can say about President Clinton or any Democratic leader since.
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