The Vision Thing

By George Neumayr
The American Spectator

Before he became president, George Bush was asked by journalist Tucker Carlson, what activity don't you excel at? He responded, "Sitting down and reading a 500-page book on public policy or philosophy or something." Like his father, Bush suffers from an unwillingness to engage conservative political philosophy seriously. While his political attenae is keener than his father's and he has more access to common sense than his father on certain issues, he, too, stumbles on the "vision thing" and struggles to stake out philosophically rigorous positions. The media are quick to note Bush's laziness of thought, but they are reluctant, lest it screw up their right/left narrative, to note its principal characteristic: borrowing heavily from liberal rhetoric and uncritically accepting many foolish assumptions of liberalism.