My Take

I get a lot of liberals asking me where we conservatives were when Bush was spending like a drunk Democrat (they actually don't ask it exactly like that...;) and the answer is a bit complicated.

8 months into Bush's presidency 9-11 happened. It was a tragedy none of us were prepared for, and it stunned us completely. Then two wars. Naturally our focus was elsewhere instead of on Bush's spending habits. 2004 came and we were just so happy that Bush beat Kerry and our boys would not return home from Iraq in defeat, which certainly would have happened if Kerry had won.

In 2005 Katrina hit. We felt we could not be critical of this President who was dealing with so much, but believe me, among ourselves we were like, "$2000 dollars just thrown at people? What was he thinking?" It was an irresponsible way to handle helping the victims of Katrina, but we held back our criticisms. When idiots like Kanye West were on TV saying stupid things like, "George Bush hates black people" while Bush was throwing money and resources at Katrina victims, what would we say? People didn't have a clue about how states are responsible for first responders and that Gov. Blanco wouldn't give Pres. Bush the authority by state rights that he needed to take over the rescue. The Federal Govt writes checks, the states respond to emergencies. Mississippi was hit just as hard, but the local govt knew how to handle it. The local govt of Louisiana was clueless. So we as conservatives could hardly voice our concerns with Bush when he was being hit so unfairly (and still is to this day, and the media never told the real story). We turned our focus back to the war, which wasn't going well. We were worried. Many conservatives were angry with Bush over spending and immigration issues, but again, we felt he deserved a break with all that was on his plate, and the unfairness of the media and the left. Also, the economy was doing very well, which was miraculous considering all that we had been though. We were grateful.

Then the surge happened. We couldn't believe Bush won that one, and it put us on the road to victory in Iraq finally. This meant a great deal to us, so spending seem to take a backseat again. I think our commitment to our military was so much of a focus to us during the Bush years, that we turned a blind eye to many things in the Republican party.


Republicans watched a President lead, when it wasn't easy to lead. We watched him make tough unpopular decisions because he believed them to be right. We kept our mouths shut. Was that the right thing? I don't know. But the one good thing that has come out of the election of Obama is that we can no longer be quiet as conservatives. Spending is out of control (especially now!) and we can longer tolerate those Republicans that go along with it.


Republicans are ready to return to our core values. We have always been at our best when were were fighting for something. Now we are fighting to be the conservative party that we once were.


Join the Resistance.