I happened onto a wonderful editorial the other day when looking for more info on a debate that took place this week. The debate was between Bill Kristol from Fox and the Weekly Standard and Robert Kuttner from The American Prospect. Keep in mind this was written before the debates Thursday night, and here's part of it:
How can the contenders distance themselves from Bush’s failures without alienating their own base? Expect them to invoke conservative icon Ronald Reagan early and often. They’ll call for a return to the faith, pledge to follow in the footsteps of the Gipper and promise a "New Morning in America."
But the Gipper can’t save them. Bush’s signature failures- the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, the posturing around the Terri Schiavo and stem cells- can be traced back not simply to conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them- but to the core conservative doctrine that Reagan championed. The Gipper can’t lead the Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase him, his conservatism is not the solution to their problem: his conservatism is the problem.
His conservatism is not the solution to their problem: his conservatism is the problem.
More on the flip.
To read the entire editorial go to this link: The Gipper Won’t Win This One. After watching them invoke Reagan’s name time after time the other night at the debates, I’d say this article is spot on with them invoking Reagan's name and trying to forget they knew Bush's. It does a lovely job of pointing out the fact that the two cannot be separated.
George Bush is everything the conservatives wanted to get under Reagan, but didn’t. And now we’re living with the fruits of their labor. So when the conservatives invoke Reagan as some sort of savior for the party as they try to distance themselves from George Bush, we need to remind the public over and over again just what Reagan did stand for, and what Reagan wanted, and that is exactly what we have now. His dream for America come to fruition with all of its ugly consequences. You can say the same for Iraq, and their grand experiment in conservative utopia there, and we all see how that's turned out.
What led me to finding that editorial is that there was a debate the other day that few Americans watched, and that I would not have known about except I happened to catch part of it on C-SPAN radio and looked into it a bit further. The editor of the Weekly Standard whom we all know and love so well from his appearances on Fox News Sunday, bloody Bill Kristol debated the founding co-editor of The American Prospect Robert Kuttner. The topic: Experts Probe Conservative Failure as Presidential Candidates Prepare to Debate at the Reagan Library. This was part of a day long event at The National Press Club exposing how conservative ideas have failed America.
From a press release on the event: Kuttner joined Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage and other progressive leaders on a conference call with reporters today to announce a major offensive to link conservative ideas and policies to their failures. Thursday's conference, sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future and The American Prospect, kicks-off the effort. The Campaign for America's Future also recently launched a new blog, "The Big Con," to track the conservative failure, arguing that conservatives can't govern because they get the world wrong.
I wanted to add that much of this was also written about in this diary Conservative Governance gets an 'F' by WisCheez but the diary got little attention and did not mention the debate or the conference except in the comments section and I thought the topic deserved some more attention.
Here is the video of the debate between Kuttner and Kristol. Kuttner was impressive and really tore apart all of Kristol's arguments. He doesn't do so well when he has to make his points against someone who is a real progressive instead of the friendly atmosphere of Fox News Sunday.
Here’s more from the press release on the conference:
CONFERENCE ON THE FAILURE OF CONSERVATISM
Thursday, May 3, 2007
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
9 a.m.
Experts discuss how President Bush and conservatives get the world wrong.
10:30 a.m.
Experts discuss how conservatives get government wrong.
11:15 a.m.
Experts discuss how conservatives have failed the economy.
1 p.m.
Leaders debate if conservatives can be trusted to govern.
2:15 p.m.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, discusses the new progressive challenge.
2:30 p.m.
Experts discuss whether the conservative era is over.
Here is the web site of Campaign for America’s Future and there is video available there as well. http://home.ourfuture.org/
I would encourage everyone to take the time to watch the video of the debate and to share it with others. I think the dialog they’re having at The American Prospect at this conference is exactly the right one progressives in this country should be having with all Americans if we’re going to take this country back from those who continue to invoke Reagan as some sort of savior for the Republicans. The GOP talking point needs to be debunked for what it is, utter bullshit. We cannot afford another President who does not want to reverse the damage to our country that started under Ronald Reagan, and that has been fulfilled under George Bush. If the GOP wants to strap themselves to Reagan, to paraphrase Rumsfeld, let's make sure it's the Reagan that was, and not the Reagan they pretend that was.