Letter: Conservatives’ loyalty to Bush is irrational

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003 | 8:51 a.m.

If Al Gore had been inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2001, how would conservatives have reacted if had taken some of the same actions as President George W. Bush?

I'm referring specifically to the following actions by Bush:

He signed into law a so-called campaign finance reform law that effectively eviscerates the First Amendment.

He pressured conservative congressmen into supporting an expansion of Medicare that results in the largest single entitlement program in our nation's history.

He meekly complied with a directive from the World Trade Organization regarding steel tariffs, thereby surrendering power over trade and tax policy to an unelected global body.

If in the future similar issues were confronted by a President Howard Dean or (one shudders to think) Hillary Rodham Clinton, how would the results differ then?

It's tempting to think that much of the irrational loyalty conservatives display toward President Bush results from an aesthetic judgment; after all, to decent, hard-working, reasonably moral people, George W. Bush is a much more attractive figure than his predecessor. But mature people learn to look beyond aesthetics and personalities when assessing political leaders.

This is why conservatives capable of independent thought should ask themselves this question when assessing President Bush's actions: How would I react if anybody other than George W. Bush were doing this?

KEN HOVEY