Has a solution become possible?

Up to this point, I’ve said that if Harriet Miers’s nomination were withdrawn or defeated, President Bush in his animus against conservatives would still not appoint a genuine conservative, and might even (as Howard Sutherland suggested earlier today at VFR) appoint the conservatives’ bête noire, Alberto Gonzales. But it appears now that there’s a way for this impasse to be resolved. From Bush’s extravagant, unbelievable statement that he intends over time to remove every illegal alien from the country, we know that Bush wants to pacify his conservative supporters—he may not like the things he must do to pacify them, but he does want to pacify them. Given that he is willing to take a stand on immigration so repugnant to his own preferences in order to accomplish that end, it also becomes possible that he will withdraw Miers and appoint a good judicial conservative in her stead.

But that raises another and more troubling question: would it be a good thing for Bush to make peace with the conservatives? The rebellion over Miers is the best thing to happen to the conservative movement in years, breaking their lapdog loyalty to a non-conservative president and raising the hope of a revival of a more serious conservatism. Do we really want the conservatives, now that they have finally awakened somewhat from their paralyzing fealty to Bush, to go back to sleep?

A reader writes:

You ask, “Would it be a good thing for Bush to make peace with the conservatives?” I don’t think he can quell the rebellion as the conservatives have finally realized that they’ve been burned and throwing them a bone isn’t going to prevent them from scrutinizing his every move from this point forward. Bush can’t win them back without becoming a true conservative, which he isn’t going to do. Even if, miracle of miracles, he decided he wanted to, he couldn’t pull it off as conservatism requires one to fight and I’ve never seen any fight in Bush. Maneuvering and positioning yes, fighting no. If he would nominate Mark Levin for the Supreme Court and then fight like hell for him we could talk reconciliation.

The Free Republic thread contained satire as biting as any I’ve seen since National Lampoon worked over Richard Nixon and we know which direction he was headed.

LA replies:

I think you’ve summed up the situation perfectly.

But if there is this impasse, where do you see the present situation heading? What will happen next?

Reader replies:

I don’t have an answer. How does Bush govern when he has been elected by a base that he doesn’t respect and the base has become wise to the deception?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 19, 2005 09:47 PM | Send