RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Bush is not a right winger by any stretch of the imagination. What he is doing is interesting though in that he is remaking the Republican party in his own image. We really got a different bill of goods than what we sold on in the general election 4 years ago. The overall drift of Bush's policy orientation is very strong nationalism at home and abroad. Indeed, the electoral trend recently throughout the world indicate that nationalist leaders have gained in popularity from Latin America, Israel and the Middle East, East Asia and even parts of Europe. In a world where globalization is the trend, people seem to want to hold on to a bit of the familiar past. Of course national interests many times collide, but that tends to happen a lot in the nation state system. At home this nationalism is represented by way of advocating big government programs. Bush has been a huge spender, and most of it is not because of his war policies either. Discretionary non-military spending has gone up 16% since George Bush became president. A lot of it goes into subsidizing agriculture and industries that are not competitive. In short, these policies are really feel good in the short term, but in the long term we are going to have to eventually cope with inflation, being that the government is spending money like a drunken sailor. I am a conservative who voted for George Bush in the last Presidential election both in the primary and the election. I never imagined in any way that George Bush would take the country in the direction that I've seen it go. And again let me emphasize that Bush is not right wing in the traditional sense. He's much more of a nationalist than anything else; that explains the go-it-alone attitude of his foreign policy, protectionism and high government spending at home. 9/11 seems to have been the turning point in the Bush administration; at that point he really started to advocate nationalism much more strongly. Nationalistic policies are in general very feel-good, that's why Bush is doing so well, but eventually we're going to have to pay for these policies. As a conservative Republican, frankly, I'm having a lot of trouble stomaching much of the Bush agenda right now.

Alleged alleged alleged alleged alleged. Bush is 'allegedly' a man. He's 'allegedly' from the United States. He's 'allegedly' married to a woman named Laura. He's 'allegedly' been the governor of Texas. He's 'allegedly' the current president. He's 'definitely' to the right of Mussolini.

As I've attempted to explain to you before jamestkirk--- the items on this list were suggested by other reviewers, and are not by any means my own beliefs. The fact is, however, that Bush is accused of being firecely partisan (although I disagree with that accusation). Bush is anything but a hard-right Republican. He maintains his own personal morality and values, but many of his actions as President have proven that he is anything but a right-wing radical: massive expansion of federal role in education; massive expansion of Medicare; massive expansion of farm and energy programs. While Bush may lean towards the right on many issues (i.e. abortion, gay marriage), his opinions on those issues reflect a deep personal belief based on morality and not politics. The fact is, Bush has more than cooperated with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and has embraced agendas from both the right and the left.

Would you agree with this-Howard Dean is a left-wing radical who seeks to initiate the total domination of the left-wing in American politics. That statement is as ridiculous as the one you made about Bush. First and foremeost, Bush is defending and protecting this country. That is his stated first priority. Second, he is establishing a more conservative approach to economics and taxation in this country. I can easily accept that many don't agree with his social and economic beliefs, but, like Pres. Clinton for example, Pres. Bush is pushing an agenda that he sincerely advocates and believes in. Domination is too extreme of a term to be used and only stresses this individual's dislike for Bush.

Bush is the leader of the Republican party and unlike the left wing which is split between roughly three factions (liberal democrats, centrist democrats and greens), the Republican party is both pretty undivided and faces little competition from the Reform or Libertarian parties. Furthermore Bush has plenty of connections with other members of the party and is the second member of a presidential dynasty. He HAS domination of the right wing. Since he lurches further right each passing day with scarcely any internal pressure against doing so, this is as good as any a reason not to vote for him.

If anyone actually thinks Bush is a right-wing radical, then they probably don't know much about politica anyway. In fact, some of Bush's policies are liberal, and unRepublican, such as increasing government, for example.

Maybe I'm still a little naive (though at my advanced age ::cough:: I don't think so) but I think you should vote for someone based on their policies, their ideas, their performance, and their integrity, rather than the color of their hat. While it doesn't happen very often, once in a while I'll support a Republican over a Democrat. Strict party-line voting is stupid. You might as well be a machine. UPDATE: I think this item used to be ...because he's a Republican. Give Redoedo a chance to fix it.

I also think this is ridiculous reason to not vote for George W. Bush. I still am not sure if I will vote for him or not, but if I choose not to vote for him, it will have nothing to do with whether he is a Republican or not. There are some good Republicans, and there are some bad ones, too. The same goes for the Democrats. I do usually sway towards Democrats however, but just like Enkidu said, you should not vote based on the color of their hat !

Not that it'll happen, but I ould like to see someone who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican win the next election. The Democrats have all becmoe Republicans, the Republicans have all become fascists, and the so-called New Right are taking over the country, and Bush is catering to them.

There are good republicans out there. I've always liked Grassley from my home state, but to me, Bush is not a good Republican.