by Zach Bigalke

Created on: May 28, 2007

Fiscal conservatism champions the ideals of spending as little as possible, and spending only on those projects deemed crucial to the improvement of the nation. Social conservatism implies a dearth of government interference unless such actions would provide utilitarian benefits for a majority of the populace without hindrance to the rest. Military conservatism asserts that the best offense is a good defense; a strong military must, therefore, be united in a common goal. Conservative ideals are, however, not uniform across the spectrum of governance. Despite this fact, all conservatism has at its base the intention of preserving a heritage (cultural, religious, patriotic, fiscal, etc.) and strengthening its influence.

The forty-third president of the United States ran for his first term of office as the "Compassionate Conservative" alternative to the incumbent vice president. Upholding traditional ideals - of the Republican Party, in this case - he sought to offer an alternative to what many viewed as the moral morass wrought on the White House by the previous administration. Rife in this philosophy was a religious conservatism striving to mesh Judeo-Christian doctrine into the secular institutions of the federal government.

In the traditional spirit of political conservatism, Bush is for all intents and purposes neither "compassionate" nor "conservative". In a military sense, the actions on the twin fronts of Iraq and Afghanistan have spread the military out too thinly in an overextended offensive posture. Signing off on large expenditures which provide few direct benefits for the majority of the domestic electorate, the president has flouted any pretenses of fiscal conservatism. And the denial of greater freedoms and benefits for many living within American borders implies a gross denial of the utilitarian standards necessary to declare social conservatism.

In only one sense can George W. Bush be declared a conservative. By perpetuating the silent sectarianism of our government institutions Bush and his cronies have stayed true to conservative religious philosophies. But, then again, so have governments such as the Wahhabi rulers of Saudi Arabia and the Taliban oppressors in Afghanistan. And few across the globe would purport that the United States is more conservative, in the definition of the term, than either of these groups.

Bush, therefore, cannot be called a true conservative. His free-spending ways and rash judgments are the antithesis of conservatism. In every spirit of the word, the conservatism of the Bush administration has more often than not been a childish assertion akin to "Do as I say, not as I do..." This is not conservatism; this is a schoolyard bully whose only cause is self-preservation.

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