Ross Douthat had a column in yesterday’s NYT in which he essentially argued that the GOP should return to the Christian Democrat program of George W. Bush. Douthat concedes Bush’s many failings, but contends that most of his agenda was designed to help working and middle-class people, and notes that the Trump agenda consists of noise directed at Reactionaries and actual measures designed for plutocrats.
As usual, Douthat is partly right and partly wrong. His description of Trump is perfectly accurate. I don’t buy his argument that the Bush economic agenda of tax cuts for the rich and deregulation was part of a CD program; it was pure PBP. I do agree, however, that the rest of his domestic program was primarily CD, and that the Republican Party would be a lot more sane if it returned to it.
Unfortunately, for some reason, the failure of the Bush Administration resulted in a repudiation by the GOP of, not nation-building, reckless deregulation, and constitutional violations, but programs like No Child Left Behind. There is no reason to believe this will change in the foreseeable future.