Can Bush Get Right With the Right?

By JAY AMBROSE

Bush-bashers enjoy saying the president is far, far to the right, but as virtually any conservative will tell you, he has been a me-too liberal on many of the issues that matter most - spending like crazy, expanding the bureaucracy, subsidizing farmers, caving in to free-speech curbs and recklessly enlarging an entitlement program.

That list is just for starters, and the question is whether he and his supporters can make a convincing case before the end of the Republican National Convention that he will rectify his errors - get right with the right - while moving boldly with particularized, innovative policies on some major problems mostly ignored in the first term.

It won’t be easy, but one thing will be easy: doing a more adult job of addressing the American people than the Democrats did in their convention. Their answer to runaway spending is to spend more; enlarge some wasteful program and you prove you care, it seems. Oh yes, they also want you to blame President Bush for the economic slowdown that began in the Clinton administration, they want to tax the rich more, they want you to believe that Bush is a liar and they want you to be fully aware that their candidate, John Kerry, spent four months in Vietnam.

Do they get it that Social Security and Medicare are walking toward the edge of a cliff? They gave no sign they did.

What the Bush people don’t have to do _ and won’t do _ is confess the ways their guy went wrong. They can accentuate all the positives in the future they envision _ restructuring Medicare to make it stable and moving toward enlarged liberty through less dependence on government, for instance. Their rhetoric on free trade has been excellent and some of their policies have been, too _ agreeing to reduce agricultural subsidies over time and to have expanded free-trade agreements with South America. They can continue that kind of talk while also hinting we will see no more tariffs like the one that ineffectually favored the steel industry while costing jobs in other industries.

It would be truly exciting if Bush would come out for individual retirement accounts in Social Security and for a further flattening of income taxes. The first idea would be significant in rescuing Social Security from the crisis it is approaching, and the second would be economically energizing, if also an excuse for the left to scream about how awful it is for the well-to-do to keep any of their money. Such proposals would show the Kerry campaign up for the empty bucket it is and just maybe convince conservatives and lots of others that the president is willing to back up his rhetoric with meaningful measures.

At one point, some reporters with seemingly good sources were telling us that Bush would indeed announce these policy intentions at the convention, but lately, they have made it sound less likely. There is, after all, risk involved, especially when the job market is rebounding less quickly than the rest of the economy. (Some Bush advisers think bold policies would look "desperate" under this circumstance, we are told.) There is also risk, however, in having conservatives think the main reason to vote for Bush is Kerry. People tend to stay home on Election Day when that uninspired.

Bush has certainly had accomplishments in his first term, and should emphasize them. Nothing may be of more consequence to the future of American civilization than the war on terror, and despite mistakes, Bush has seemed to have the requisite insight, aggressiveness and decisiveness to do what is necessary to save us from calamity. His tax reductions _ although they should have been accompanied by spending reductions _ were stimulative and wise. His program for accountability in the nation’s schools is on the whole a good start in improving American education.

But the convention needs to go beyond such reminders, and beyond an effort at public-relations prettiness, which was the chief achievement of the Democratic convention. It should respect the American people by addressing real issues in a serious way, and it should give some indication to conservative supporters that the Republican Party has rediscovered principles of fiscal responsibility, governmental restraint, the power of a market kept free and the profound importance of the Bill of Rights.

(Jay Ambrose is director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard Newspapers and can be reached at AmbroseJ@shns.com)

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