The revolution that wasn’t

Jay Reding follows up my critique of the E.J. Dionne column that atacked President Bush for launching a conservative revolution after 9/11, by comparing candidate Bush’s policy objectives (as set forth in his campaign book Renewing American’s Purpose) with President Bush’s actual initiatives. Reding reminds us that candidate Bush spoke of “Social Security choice, school vouchers, tax cuts, health care reform, and regulatory streamlining galore.” President Bush has delivered tax cuts, but conservatives have “lost school vouchers, Social Security choice, health care streamlining (and got a massive and expensive entitlement program instead!), and much of the other plans of the Bush administration.” Reding acknowledges that “some of this is to be expected[since] lofty political goals usually don’t survive the harsh realities of pragmatic politics.” But it is obvious that the president has not pushed a radically conservative agenda in the aftermath of 9/11.

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