Posted by
hpaft on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:45:37 PM
It looks as if the Reagan Revolution is over. It will probably take another two years at least to tell for sure, but with the gains of '94 completely wiped out, a decidedly left wing president (not a centrist like Clinton or Kerry) heading to the White House, the GOP and the values and issues they stand for are decidedly in decline. In almost every issue, conservative ideology has been pushed back in the last eight years.
Social issues: The abortion ban failed a 2nd time in South Dakota. Massachusetts and Connecticutt have legalized gay marriage. The Terry Schaivo case pushed back efforts to take the decision of how to deal with near-death or severely disabled family members away from the family. Not to mention the decision of Pope John Paul II to die comfortably in his own bed, rather than a hospital.
Fiscal Conservativism: Eight years of Bush 43 has squandered the budget surplus from the Clinton Administration, to record deficits. Bush is the first president in history to cut taxes in the middle of a war.
Small Government: With the large expansion of the Department of Education and the creation of Homeland Security, Bush has presided over the largest expansion of the Federal gov't in decades. The Patriot Act, Warrantless Wiretapping, the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th amendments of the Constitution have increased the federal government's ability to interfere with the daily lives of Americans.
Foreign Policy: The hawkish foreign policy that from the republican administration has crippled American Diplomatic efforts abroad. Our alliance with Western Europe have never been icier. Israel and Palestine are still at each other's throats. Russian belligerence has no check on it in spite of Condi Rice's stern finger wag. North Korea has tested nuclear weapons and only the return to Clinton style diplomacy has Kim Jong Il given up his nukes. Iran has spent the last four years laughing and at the U.S.'s and Israel threats over its own nuclear program(weaponized or otherwise).
Capitalism. The excesses of capitalism caused the Great Depression and has now given us the biggest economic crisis in at least a quater of a century. The republican response was a $700 billion bailout and a partial nationialization of the financial sector.
Health Care: Americans have rebelled from the now famous "Harry and Louise" ads. With the discrepency between American and European in life expectancy, infant mortality, and satisfaction with their health care system getting larger, a health care system that seems to most Americans to be based on forcing middle America into bankruptcy seems more and more anachronistic everyday.
So what is left???