I've observed that conservative constituencies generally have totally unrealistic expectations about the power of conservative officeholders in democracies. They're outraged when a politician compromises with the opposition and see it as a betrayal, and not as the normal process of leadership in a democracy.
Just after Bush took the office I predicted that it would take only about a year for his conservative constituency to become disillusioned and turn on him. 9/11 gave Bush an extra year's grace, but sure enough, the process of cannibalization has started. When I saw my father, Attilla the Republican, a few weeks ago, he confided exactly that--he's "had it" with Bush because he's not sufficiently hard-assed and autocratic. Bush has "betrayed his conservative principles" by once in a long while compromising with the opposition (although at the moment I'm hard-pressed to think of a Bush compromise...but perception matters more than reality in politics).
Just as taxes will always be too high and liberals will always be destroying the nation, so too will there never be an elected conservative politician who's "pure" enough to satisfy his constituency.
Current Events » in reply to re: newly elected Belgian Government
True conservatives never compromise
The whole thread (40 posts)
- First decision of the newly elected Belgian Government
- re: newly elected Belgian Government
- re: lack of perception
- re: newly elected Belgian Government
- re: newly elected Belgian Government