Reply #18: And they say, "Have you packed yet?" [View All]

[caseymoz]

"It's very important for our party not to narrow its focus, not to become so inward looking that we drive people away from a philosophy that is compassionate and decent."

If this had come from another prominent conservative, it would be a world-shaking admission that the conservative ideology at its core is repulsive and has to be tempered by extra "compassion." Otherwise, it could alienate people for being anti-social, some would even say sociopathic.

Bush said it, though, so it is dismissed as just another stupid statement. Like Republicans and especially Conservatives have any reason to listen to his vapid, stammering malaprops anymore? It is not like they owe him for their continuing success. Bush has screwed them almost as much as he has screwed the rest of the country.

Among everything else, in his last days, Bush has still not learned to say anything profound. He has left his party with nothing quotable. He said so much more than Calvin Coolidge, and all of it is junk. Now he will leave the GOP with no words of inspiration to edify conservatives in their hopeless attempts to rebuild their shattered hopes and agenda. The Bush presidency is the black hole in which conservatives and probably the whole GOP party will disappear.

The implication of his advise is even more shocking: they should be more humane because. . . it will gain them recruits. Of course, Bush doesn't understand this, but he knows he's advising people who could only be persuaded to be compassionate if it gains them power. By recruiting more members. He doesn't think ahead to advise them on what to do when those recruits find out the compassion is just a front.

I find one thing most remarkable about Bush's statement, and I wonder if anyone noticed? He said the very same thing coming into office. He had the very same, and accurate criticism of Conservatism, and advocated more compassion, calling himself a "compassionate conservative." His observation was dead accurate: Conservatives weren't compassionate. Over the course of eight years his simple thought on that subject went nowhere else. His mind is actually more sluggish than a sloth in a coma.