Left's strange view of the right

Jonah Goldberg:

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Frank Rich, gifted psephologist, finds the perfect parallel to the GOP's squabbles in Stalin's murderous purges.

“Though they constantly liken the president to various totalitarian dictators,” Rich writes, “it is they who are re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode.” Stalin's “full purge mode” involved the systematized exile and slaughter of hundreds of thousands (not counting his genocide of millions). The GOP's purge has so far caused one very liberal Republican to halt her bid for Congress.

Let me offer a counter-theory, admittedly lacking in such color but making up for it with evidence and consideration of what conservatives actually believe.

After 15 or 20 years of steady moderation, many conservatives think it might be time to give their ideas a try.

Bush's “compassionate conservatism” was promoted as an alternative to traditional conservatism. Bush promised to be a “different kind of Republican,” and he kept that promise. He advocated government activism, and he put our money where his mouth was. He federalized education with No Child Left Behind — co-sponsored by Teddy Kennedy — and oversaw the biggest increase in education spending in history (58 percent faster than inflation), according to the Heritage Foundation, while doing next to nothing to advance the conservative idea known as school choice.

With the prescription drug benefit, he created the biggest new entitlement since the Great Society (Obama is poised to topple that record).

Oh, and Bush, not Obama, initiated the first bailouts and TARP.

Not all of these positions were wrong or indefensible. But the notion that Bush pursued conservative ideas with “dogmatic fixity” is dogmatic nonsense.

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Actually for the last 30 years the Republicans and conservatives have been the party of ideas. Tax cuts were just one part of that. Bush's ideas for Social Security reform would have improved teh system and made it more viable in the coming years. The Demcorats were the reactionaries to that. They were the party resisting change. In fact there are many other examples of changes they resisted over the time period. Somehow we were able to argue with them without suggesting they were Stalin's minions.