For all of President Bush's talk about spending his political capital in his second term, the conservative revolution has misfired badly with him at the helm these last ten months.
Or has it?
Social Security Reform was bludgeoned nearly to death, but the Democrats with their hammers came off looking a little like the Arabs dancing in the streets on 9/11. Sure, they won. But the red ink that Social Security is drowning in will soon have voters wondering what all the celebrating in 2005 was all about.
The end runs around the crazed enviro-fascists will soon have us drilling for oil in the ANWR wilderness. This will clearly open the way to more domestic exploration that will substantially reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
The revolt by the most fiscally conservative House Republicans will likely result in reduced pork spending. A similar mutiny by conservative Senate Republicans will certainly result in the confirmation of a solid Supreme Court justice.
So now the President's own Advisory Panel on Tax Reform has issued its ideas for simplifying our tax system and everyone is waiting to see what the vox populi declares.
When President Reagan left the White House in 1989, the conservative movement suffered from the loss of a great champion. Could it be that President Bush will leave us stronger in his absence because of the way he has drawn out our liberal opponents from their fortifications with their arguments pulled down around their ankles?
I think so, yes.
The question then becomes "Can we do the same thing here in Kentucky?" Can the ground troops of the Bluegrass conservative movement wrest control of the Republican party and the social objectives that drew us to it from those who would use it for self-aggrandizement? Can we force discipline on a state government that raised our taxes last year, and continues to this day to keep us mired in an upward spiral of health insurance costs that could be alleviated with the stroke of a pen, just as the downward spiral of our public education system could be stopped dead in its tracks with a simple reform of higher standards and fewer layers of administration?
I think so, yes.
I don't know how much credit history will give President Bush for advancing conservative principles, but I fear that Kentucky will squander its opportunity for advancement without stronger conservative leadership. A few good men and women are working to change our course. I believe that 2006 will be their year.
