RUJAX!

...or what?

I am a big fan of Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.

He makes the point...as the "Conservatives" on the bus start trying to either get off, or throw Bush under it...that modern conservatism, that is the manifestation of that philosophy(touted over the last 30 years or so) that we are seeing in full flower now, is the prevailing ruling philosophy vis Foreign, Domestic, and Social policy.

The aborted try with Nixon (was Clinton made to pay for Nixon's sins..."enquiring minds" want to know), the first blush and the installation of the basic structure with Reagan, and the full implementation with Bush 43.

"What we appear to be in for now is the emergence of this phantom conservatism
existing out in the ether, wholly cut loose from any connection to the actual
people who are universally identified as the conservatives and who claim the
label for themselves.
We can even go a bit beyond this though. The big claim
now is that President Bush isn't a conservative because he hasn't shrunk the
size of government and he's a reckless deficit spender.
But let's be honest:
Balanced budgets and shrinking the size of government hasn't been part of
conservatism -- or to be more precise, Movement Conservatism -- for going on
thirty years. The conservative movement and the Republican party are the
movement and party of deficit spending. And neither has any claim to any real
association with limited or small government. Just isn't borne out by any
factual record or political agenda. Not in the Reagan presidency, the Bush
presidency or the second Bush presidency. The intervening period of fiscal
restraint comes under Clinton."

Further in, he makes the point I have been endorsing for a long time...

Take the movement on its own terms and even be generous about it. What's it
about? And has it delivered?

Aggressive defense policy? Check.

Privatization of government services? Check.

Regulatory regimes favoring
big business? Check.

Government support for traditional mores and values on
sex and marriage? Check.

And the "punch line"...

That about covers it. And Bush has delivered. The results just aren't
good.

Yup.

Read it HERE.

...what he said.