Don't Tell Your Conservative Friends About This. They Won't Believe You

A Republican recently said to me that he no longer supports G. W. Bush, although he previously had voted for him. "He’s turned out to be a liberal just like his daddy," he said, "and I don't want a thing to do with him." This seems to be a common theme echoing throughout the blogosphere, where pundits have realized that 'compassionate conservative' really means "liberal in disguise." Is Bush a liberal? On four out of five key issues, Bush has shown his liberal leanings. First, nowhere is Bush’s betrayal more evident than with immigration. He refuses to recognize that America historically has not been a “nation of [illegal] immigrants” arriving at an extant welfare state, but rather a nation of settlers and colonists. Like a failed Roman emperor, Bush engages in the unbecoming business of auctioning of citizenship for (unlikely) future loyalty. He sides with Ted Kennedy in pushing a guest-worker program, although a recent Zogby poll shows that 81 percent of Republican voters support an enforcement-only approach. Jettisoning reason, tradition, and loyalty to hard-working Americans, Bush attempts to transform America into a third-world country. Second, Bush also allies himself with Ted Kennedy on education. Bush’s socialist No Child Left Behind should be named “Great Society, Pt. II.” NCLB has removed authority over education from the states and placed it at the feet of a bloated federal bureaucracy; has expanded the role of certification and the proletarian Schools of Education; has reinforced the notion that education should be universal; and will have a dumbing-down effect unlike any we’ve ever seen. One can easily dismiss this piece of legislation as one of the worst washouts in recent history.

Isn't it time for conservatives to wise up? If we do it soon, we might even be able to save our lives and our country.