Why the Right Went Wrong: ConservatismFrom Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond (82 page)

“We have to take the world as we find it”
: James Bennet, “With Nation Glued to Television, Clinton Sticks with His Peers,”
New York Times
, September 21, 1998.

A young Florida congressman named Joe Scarborough
: Jerry Gray, “Gingrich Offers an Agenda, but the Christian Coalition Attacks Sharply,”
New York Times
, March 7, 1997.

As Gillon observed
: Gillon,
The Pact,
p. 260.

He urged Clinton
: Alison Mitchell, “Impeachment: The Overview—Clinton Impeached; He Faces a Senate Trial, 2D in History; Vows to Do Job Till Term’s ‘Last Hour,’ ”
New York Times
, December 20, 1998.

When it finally acted on February 12, 1999
: “How Senators Voted on Impeachment,” CNN, February 12, 1999.

nicely summarized by Hillary Clinton
: Steven M. Teles, “The Eternal Return of Compassionate Conservatism,”
National Affairs
, Fall 2009.

“we had too many people in prison”
: Jeremy Diamond, “Bill Clinton Concedes Role in Mass Incarceration,”
CNN.com
(May 7, 2015).

Clinton’s rhetorical concessions to the right
: President Bill Clinton, State of the Union address, January 23, 1996.

approval ratings in the Gallup Poll
: “Presidential Approval Ratings—Bill Clinton,” Gallup.

6. PUT ON A COMPASSIONATE FACE

“We should not ignore the potential for suffering”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “The New Bleeding Hearts: The Prospect Is Enough to Make a Liberal’s Day,” Brookings Institution, February 16, 1997.

Berger and Neuhaus emphasized
: Peter L. Berger and Richard John Neuhaus,
To Empower People: The Role of Mediating Structures in Public Policy
(Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1977), p. 158.

“For too long in modern America”
: E. J. Dionne,
Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America
(Washington, DC: Brookings Press, 1998), p. 102.

“take the side of people”
: Ibid., p. 106.

“Instead of embracing”
: Steven M. Teles, “The Eternal Return of Compassionate Conservatism,”
National Affairs
, Fall 2009.

“the idea that a society”
: Ibid.

Kuo’s lesson to liberals was simple enough
: David Kuo, “Poverty 101: What Liberals and Conservatives Can Learn from Each Other,” Brookings Institution, Fall 1997.

Marvin Olasky
: For Olasky’s view of compassionate conservativism, see Marvin Olasky,
Conservatism: What it Is, What it Does, and How It Can Transform America
(New York: Free Press, 2000). The book was published as Bush’s campaign for president was in full swing, and Bush contributed a foreword that reflected his own careful balancing between the compassionate conservative camps. Bush called for a “government that knows its limits and helps people show what’s in their hearts,” and added: “Government will not be replaced by charities but it can welcome them as a partner.” Reflecting a certain pragmatism that naturally comes to someone who has suddenly emerged as an adviser to a presidential candidate, Olasky expresses his preference for cutting back on government, but urges conservatives to take an “all-or-something” approach: “try to cut back on government, but when that does not happen, work to have improved programs.” It should be said that there is no doubt about Olasky’s sincerity as a Christian who believes his approach to poverty is the best. But it is difficult to see how his call for returning to an approach to poverty that preexisted the Progressive Era and the New Deal would lead to anything but a radical reduction in the standard of living of the poorest Americans.

“time for Congress to increase the pressure”
: Marvin Olasky,
Renewing American Compassion
(Washington, DC: Regnery, 1997), pp. 98–108.

“placing in the hands of state officials”
: Michael Gerson,
Heroic Conservatism
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 168.

“He’s not looking over your shoulder”
: Interview with author.

“to make sure that there are consequences”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “Getting Good Press,”
Chicago Tribune
, October 27, 1998.

“That means somebody’s got”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “Getting Good Press,”
Chicago Tribune
, October 27, 1998.

“A Bush victory”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “In Search of George W.,”
Washington Post
, September 19, 1999.

Ibid, Dionne, “Getting Good Press.”

“I heard Bush say over and over”
: Karl Rove,
Courage and Consequence
(New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), pp. 121–22.

Ibid., p. 158.

In 1999,
National Journal
magazine: J. A. Barnes (August 7, 1999).

Bush, in his own words.
National Journal, 31
, 2275-2279. Errata, corrections 8/14/1999.

In April 1996
: Governor George W. Bush, “We Need a Renewal of Spirit in this Country,” remarks delivered April 10, 1996.

Bush memorably proposed
: George W. Bush, campaign speech in Indianapolis, July 22, 1999.

“Reducing problems to economics is simply materialism”
: Governor George W. Bush, second inaugural address as governor of Texas, January 19, 1999.

Now consider another speech
: President Herbert Hoover, radio address, February 12, 1932.

7. DOUBLE-EDGED “STRATEGERY”

Dan Simon, writing in
Forbes:
Dan Simon, “5 Differences Between Strategy and Strategery,”
Forbes
, September 11, 2012.

Without mentioning the forty-second president
: Frank Bruni, “The 2000 Campaign: The Texas Governor; Bush Calls On Gore to Denounce Clinton Affair,”
New York Times
, August 12, 2000. A fascinating take on Bush’s approach is offered by Lou Cannon and Carl M. Cannon,
Reagan’s Disciple: George W. Bush’s Troubled Quest for a Presidential Legacy
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2008). Cannon, father and son, argue that Bush sought a “melding” of his father’s “ ‘kinder and gentler’ impulses” with “Reagan’s conservatism on taxes, social policy and America’s place in the world.” There is much truth here, and the Cannons’ account underscores the son’s abiding conservatism. They also candidly describe the problems he faced in Iraq. I lay heavier stress than they do on the extent to which the successes of Clinton years forced Bush and Rove—at least during the 2000 campaign—to reach past the legacies of both the first President Bush and Reagan.

to Gore, wrote
: John F. Harris,
The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House
(New York: Random House, 2005), p. 385.

“Not only do immigrants help build our economy”
: Elise Foley, “George W. Bush: Immigration Reform Needed to Boost Economy,”
Huffington Post
, December 4, 2012.

Bush echoed, word for word
: Terry M. Neal and Juliet Eilperin, “Bush Faults House GOP Spending Plan,”
Washington Post
, October 1, 1999.

Dan Balz, the
Washington Post
’s top political reporter
: Dan Balz, “Bush Shows a Shadow of Clintonism,”
Washington Post
, October 7, 1999.

As Rove explained the strategy to
Washington Post:
Thomas B. Edsall,
Building Red America
(New York: Basic Books, 2006), p. 51.

Education, he wrote
: Karl Rove,
Courage and Consequence
(New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 159.

voters who considered education
: Ibid., pp. 238–39.

“Bush talked about education endlessly”
: Ibid., p. 239.

in the New Hampshire primary
: Ibid., p. 140.

Even in the face of Bush’s defeat
: Elizabeth Armet, “Poll Analysis: New Hampshire, Where Underdogs Have a Chance,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 23, 2000.

He was later attacked
: Juliet Eilperin and Hana Rosin, “Bob Jones: A Magnet School for Controversy,”
Washington Post
, February 25, 2000.

In his memoir
: Rove,
Courage and Consequence,
p. 146.

Thus did Bush’s campaign suggest
: R. W. Apple Jr., “The 2000 Campaign: The Electorate; Bush Redefined McCain and Retained the Right,”
New York Times
, February 21, 2000.

“that McCain was a closet liberal”
: R. W. Apple, “Bush Redefined McCain and Retained the Right,”
New York Times,
February 20, 2000.

Not only did conservatives make up
: See CNN election results:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html
.

It was no surprise that he loved capitalism
: Mark Silva, “As War Slows, Bush Returns to Other Goals,”
Orlando Sentinel
, January 27, 2002.

“The Gore Coup”
: David Tell, “The Gore Coup,”
Weekly Standard
, November 27, 2000.

The upshot, as the historian Gary Gerstle put it
: Gary Gerstle,
The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment,
ed. Julian E. Zelizer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), p. 278.

Dowd’s memo “allowed Republican leaders”
: Edsall,
Building Red America,
p. 52.

the strategy that emerged from Rove’s dual quest
: Gerstle, ed.,
Presidency of George W. Bush
, p. 278.

His short and elegant inaugural address
: President George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2001.

First came the Economic Growth:
See the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, text from the Tax Policy Center,
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/legislation/upload/EGTRRA-2001.pdf
.

“some interesting incentives”
: Paul Krugman, “Reckoning: Bad Heir Day,”
New York Times
, May 29, 2001.

The second tax cut was tilted
: John F. Dickerson, “Confessions of a White House Insider,”
Time,
January 10, 2004.

cost the Treasury another $350 billion
: Glenn Kessler, “Revisiting the Cost of the Bush Tax Cuts,”
Washington Post
, May 10, 2011.

“Floor Statement of Senator John McCain on Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, 2003,” Office of Senator John McCain, May 23, 2003.

“Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement”
: Christopher Graff, “Jeffords Leaves Republican Party,”
Washington Post
, May 24, 2001.

“Why isn’t everyone”
: Howard Kurtz, “Republican Right Rips Jeffords,”
Washington Post
, May 24, 2001.

The
New York Post
portrayed the senator
: Deborah Orin, “Jeffords Hounded by Death Threats,”
New York Post
, June 1, 2001.

“He is a liberal”
: E. J. Dionne Jr.,
Stand Up, Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 22.

The law passed the House overwhelmingly
: See No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/107/hr1
.

Democrats were already blaming Bush
: Jim VandeHei, “Education Law May Hurt Bush,”
Washington Post
, October 14, 2003.

VandeHei cited the findings
: Robert Maranto, Tom Lansford, and Jeremy Johnson,
Judging Bush
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009), p. 203.

Senator Hillary Clinton strongly opposed
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “The Democrats’ Dilemma on the Prescription Drug Bill,”
Washington Post
, June 25, 2003.

After much arm-twisting
: See Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003,
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/108/hr1
.

“I don’t mean to be an alarmist”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “The Democrats Take a Dive,”
Washington Post
, November 25, 2003.

And in 2003 enacted the largest expansion
: Barry Goldwater,
The Conscience of a Conservative
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), pp. x–xx.

After an extensive review of policy
: President George W. Bush, “Stem Cell Science and the Preservation of Life,” delivered August 12, 2001.

This, Bush said in a nationally televised
: Katharine Q. Seelye, “The President’s Decision: The Overview; Bush Gives His Backing for Limited Research on Existing Stem Cells,”
New York Times
, August 10, 2001.

Even Gerson, a strong defender
: Michael Gerson,
Heroic Conservatism
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 166.

“Bin Laden Determined”
: “Transcript: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,” CNN, April 10, 2004.

8. “I CAN HEAR YOU”

“Freedom itself”
: President George W. Bush, remarks in response to September 11 attacks, September 11, 2001.

“The president had vital”
: Karl Rove,
Courage and Consequence
(New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 260.

During a videoconference
: George W. Bush,
Decision Points
(New York: Random House, 2010), p. 135.

Gerson saw the address
: Michael Gerson,
Heroic Conservatism
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 69.

“Just three days”
: President George W. Bush, remarks at national prayer service, September 14, 2001.

“the president had misspoken”
: Gerson,
Heroic Conservatism
, p. 72.

“I can hear you”
: George W. Bush, remarks at Ground Zero, September 14, 2001.

“The face of terror”
: George W. Bush, remarks at the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., September 17, 2001.