A Major Difference Between Conservatives and Progressives

Glenn Greenwald:

One of the linchpins of the Bush presidency, especially during the first term (and well into the second, until he became a major political liability), was the lock-step uncritical reverence – often bordering on cult-like glorification–which the “conservative” movement devoted to the “Commander-in-Chief.” An entire creepy cottage industry arose–led not by fringe elements but by right-wing opinion-making leaders–with cringe-inducing products paying homage to Bush as “The First Great Leader of the 21st Century” (John Podhoretz); our “Rebel-in-Chief” (Fred Barnes); “The Right Man” (David Frum); the New Reagan (Jonah Goldberg); “a man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius” who is our “Big Brother” (John Hinderaker); and “the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” the supremely “responsible” leader who, when there’s a fire, will “help direct the rig to the right house and count the kids coming out and say, ‘Where’s Sally’?” (Peggy Noonan).

Even as Bush implemented one massive expansion of government power after the next–the very “un-conservative” policies they long claimed to oppose–there was nothing but (at best) the most token and muted objections from them. The handful of conservatives who did object were cast aside as traitors to the cause, and criticisms of the President became equated with an overt lack of patriotism. Uncritical support for the Leader was the overarching, defining attribute of conservatism, so much so that even Bill Kristol, in The New York Times, acknowledged: “Bush was the movement and the cause.”

[Salon]

Mar 25, 2009 | Categories: mainline media | Tags: Bill Kristol, conservatism, David Frum, Fred Barnes, george w. bush, glenn greenwald, John Hinderaker, John Podhoretz, Jonah Goldberg, peggy noonan | Leave A Comment »