A ‘Great Society’ Conservative
By JOSHUA GREEN
Mr. Rove had extraordinary power within the administration to shape domestic policy. But pushing through many of his programs proved difficult. On Social Security and immigration reform, Congress and the country weren’t prepared to embrace his vision. Like a 1960s liberal in love with the abstract merits of a guaranteed income, Mr. Rove misread the mood of the country and tried to do too much.
Mr. Rove married a liberal’s faith in the potential of government to a conservative’s contempt for its actual functioning. This was the contradiction at the heart of “compassionate conservatism,” and it helps explain the tension between the president’s fine words about, say, helping those hurt by Hurricane Katrina, and his actions.
Conservatives don’t have a lot to celebrate these days. Mr. Rove’s attempt at a Great Republican Society has left his party in tatters and, in this sense at least, his influence will be felt long after George W. Bush has left the White House.
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Rove as a "Great Society" (neo)-Conservative
I don't think the author is trying to argue that Rove is a liberal. He is just stating that the hubris which doomed LBJ's Great Society resembles the attempts of old-school and neo-conservatives to destroy every last remnant of the Great Society/New Deal. But where both eventually lost the political upper-hand, the conservatives, with the exception of "reforming" Social Security, actually succeeded in their endeavor. And they now have a Supreme Court that is going to fight with them tooth-and-nail to expand on these successes.
I think the author is
I think the author is claiming the problem was the 'liberal' execution of conservative ideas. It's the same nonsense pattern that has Conservatives, Republicans and liberal hawks claiming the Iraq Invasion was a poorly executed good idea.
In other words, an
In other words, an old-school conservative lamenting neo-conservative excess.... ?
Some political operative
Some political operative looking to seperate Rove's legacy from his cohort.
P6: On Target As Usual
What doomed the Great Society was the hubris of Johnson thinking that he could institute progressive changes here at home while conducting a bloody murderous and reactionary military campaign on foreign shores and that progressive elements here would go along to get along.
As for the folks arguing that invading Iraq was a "poorly executed good idea" they are simply war mongers. It does not bother these folks at all about the number of Iraqi men, women and children who died during our invasion and have died since the invasion. All of them believe that our country has the right to invade any country whenever our government feels like it regardless of whether that country is threatening us or not.