David Bernstein (after reviewing the evidence that to a large extent, George W. Bush is governing as a liberal): “Give him a phony Haavaad accent instead of phony Texas twang, a wonky college life, a less religious persona, and an attorney general other than John Ashcroft, and George Bush, in theory, would be a dream president for many liberals.”
Brad DeLong: Bernstein is a “either a out-and-out troll saying things he doesn’t believe or is remarkably uninformed.”
Flash forward.
Ezra Klein: “Republicans are getting elected by promising to protect the environment, strengthen entitlement programs, conduct humanitarian interventions, back Democratic security initiatives, and support public schools. They are getting elected by pretending to be Democrats, albeit Democrats who wear cowboy boots.”
Delong: “Ezra Klein is on a roll.”
Matthew Yglesias: “the Republican Party has essentially abandoned the small-government agenda, a small army of disgruntled conservative think tankers notwithstanding.”
Delong (exultingly): “It’s twue! It’s twue!”
Thanks to Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution for noticing and pointing out this (ahem) slight inconsistency.
UPDATE: I don’t want to rehash the debate my original post generated. Obviously, there are some reasons (judicial appointments, for one) for liberals to dislike Bush. And many liberals have pointed out to me that they think Bush has spent money imprudently and unwisely (e.g., on education and Medicare drug benefit), albeit on liberal goals. But my original post was meant, in a somewhat tongue in cheek vain, to tweak those Bush-haters who assert that Bush is running some sort of rabidly conservative economic and foreign policy, when in fact many of his policies are similar to those that would be pursued by any number of liberal politicians. DeLong and others are correct to exult in the Republican Party’s abandonment of limited government ideology, but probably incorrect to think this is mere cynicism on the part of Bush and other top Republicans. Where is the evidence that these folks ever believed in limited government to begin with?
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