by Austin Vail

Created on: May 26, 2007

Let me first define what a true conservative is before determining whether or not President Bush is one.

One common misunderstanding is that true conservatives are supposed to be for small government. This is too general of a statement that fits better to libertarians than to conservatives. True conservatives are fine with a huge military budget because that supports national defense. They are against huge government that regulates business, and in this sense, President Bush is a true conservative. He is against environmental regulations on the oil and gas industries. (Under the idea of No President Left Behind, +1 for Bush)

A true conservative is for tradition and against social engineering, so teaching to the test is fine by a true conservative. How else can one measure success other than through a metric, and what metric is better than testing and scoring? Grades mean everything.

Here it is unclear exactly what President Bush thinks about this, as he seldom talks on the subject. We must look at the legislation that he has signed into law as a clue, and that legislation is the No Child Left Behind Act that requires teachers to teach to the test. So, let's put another checkmark in the true conservative box for President Bush. He must think that test grades are the best metrics for education. (+1)

A true conservative would not jump into something without first getting all the facts straight. Here President Bush fails the true conservative test in that he rushed to war with Iraq. If the only goal had been to topple Saddam Hussein, he and the military were right about that. The regime crumbled quickly, and that part of the mission was accomplished. But as we have seen, that wasn't the only goal. The hard parts of the overall mission are ongoing and without much success to show. It looks like President Bush bit off more than he can chew, so he's not a true conservative when it comes to foreign policy. He has taken on a very large social engineering task. (-1)

A true conservative is against the nanny state, the laws that regulate things like smoking in public places, wearing seat belts and other situations that should be personal choice. As President, Bush has little to do with these laws as they fall to the state levels. However, the federal government is against states that legalize marijuana for medical purposes. That is supporting a nanny state and is not being a true conservative. Nevertheless, it is against mind-altering drugs, and that is a true conservative

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