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I don't want to have an enemy. I do not consider, for example, Mark Silver to be my enemy, even though he is a liberal. I do not consider DJB, on the "To Be A Liberal" thread, to be my enemy, even though he is a liberal. Conservatives have not "dribbled in nonsense", they have set the agenda. The Reagan/Bush years, rather than leading to general war and economic disaster, led to the termination of the Cold War and the prosperity of the 90's. Before Clinton could totally squander the economic legacy, the Republicans captured the Congress and kept him to a relatively conservative agenda. As a bonus, concern with support on Wall Street led Clinton to keep on Greenspan and appoint Rubin, and thus to steer a sensible course. Clinton may have been a fake centrist, but his worst initiatives, such as health care, failed, and he signed welfare reform and a quasi- balanced budget plan. His rhetoric, and the options that it has framed, has largely been conservative. We have set the terms of debate. In that sense, as William Kristol said years ago, we won! Just as the New Deal was the guiding consensus after the War, and even Eisenhower accepted it, so the Reagan Legacy has dominated the last 20 years. What is that consensus? An emphasis on personal responsibility; a renewed faith in the efficacy of free markets; a sense of the historic role of the United States in promoting free institutions; the questioning of the "nationalization" of every issue, and an emphasis on state and local initiatives; a greater willingness to use "values language", and even invoke religious faith, in public discourse; a sense of the limitations of governmental initiatives; and a growing sentiment that government should be downsized, and taxation should be simplified. This should give you a sense of the "rational agenda", and insofar as it has been advanced(for example, by instituting welfare reform and approving NAFTA), there have been positives in the last seven years. Mostly, Clinton has been thwarted in messing things up, and the economy has taken care of itself, which, after all, is what capitalism is all about. In the international sphere, it looks like Clinton has squandered many of the fruits of the victory in the Cold War, and left us in a weaker position militarily and diplomatically than he should have. In the sphere of institutions and values, he has disgraced his office and made the country complicit in his wanton disregard for truth, discipline, or even ordinary discretion. The damage he has done the office of the Presidency is difficult to calculate...... |
