Is Bush a Keynesian?

[Gustaf]

I think Preston's description of Bush as a plutocrat comes closest to the mark. He's obviously no conservative in any philosophical or idelogical sense. He's rich and has rich friends and therefore likes to cut taxes for himself and said friends.

[nlm]

I think Preston's description of Bush as a plutocrat comes closest to the mark. He's obviously no conservative in any philosophical or idelogical sense. He's rich and has rich friends and therefore likes to cut taxes for himself and said friends.

Bush, the GOP leadership and the Dem leadership are just ego driven, self serving tools. They are all too dim to hold to a meaningful economic theory. They are driven by short term political gains - not the long term economic health of the nation. I can see how somebody might think Bush was a Plutocrat, but I think that is giving him more credit than he deserves (and that is not to say anybody is trying to give him credit by refering to him as a Plutocrat).

[DanielX]

I'm hoping that we have a Libertarian (or some other sane third party) House myself, but that isn't exactly going to happen in 2006 or even 2008....

To have a 3rd party - and Libertarian would be my choice - that creates a situation in the House and Senate where no one party has a singular majority (i.e. a split like 40/40/20 or some such thing) is my long term dream (and actually a 4 party split like 30/30/20/20 would be even better). It would force political parties to work beyond their narrow agendas and would go a long ways towards adding responsability back into our government and reducing the influence of the meaningless partisan bickering that dominates our political landscape and give the people of this nation some actual choices that are better than picking which idiot we believe will do the least harm.

I would think, given the current landscape, that having 4 parties would work exceptionally well. A fiscally conservative/socially authoritarian party, a fiscally conservative/socially libertarian party, a fiscally liberal/socially authoritarian party and a fiscally liberal/socially libertarian party. I'm sure we could draw more lines in the sand than just that, but I'm not sure they would be needed. But the 2 amorphous groups that call themselves the Republicans and the Democrats and stand for little more than trying to grab as much power as they can are not enough to give positive direction to this nation it would seem.

One not too implausible scenario would be something a little like what just happened in Israel - a new Centrist party being formed. Let's say McCain and Lieberman decide to try and pull it off, and gather several Senators and Representatives - enough that neither party has a majority in either house. That will create some interesting situations... of course, there may well be funding issues for said Center party...

[jokerman]

I think Preston's description of Bush as a plutocrat comes closest to the mark. He's obviously no conservative in any philosophical or idelogical sense. He's rich and has rich friends and therefore likes to cut taxes for himself and said friends.

Thank You, Gustaf.  I'm tired of all of these people claiming that because Bush is a big-spender he is an economic liberal.  You have to look at where all of this money is going to.  A very large, disproportionate share is going to big business and the monied interests.

[nlm]

One not too implausible scenario would be something a little like what just happened in Israel - a new Centrist party being formed. Let's say McCain and Lieberman decide to try and pull it off, and gather several Senators and Representatives - enough that neither party has a majority in either house. That will create some interesting situations... of course, there may well be funding issues for said Center party...

It's all long term stuff, and there a ton of obstructions that need to be removed to make it happen - including the fact that both the Democratic and Republican parties will fight against it until the bitter end (and their odds of coming out on top are very good). But you have the right idea for how it could start - a few noted figures breaking away from the big 2 and being willing to fight for their causes with less cash. In my dreams we have a few notable moderate Republicans move into the Libertarian camp giving the Libertarians some much needed credibility and a few noted Democrats move over to the Green party (or some other left leaning party, I'm not so sure of what is out there on that side of things). It would shake things up quite a bit and force the Dems and GOP to redefine (or simply define) themselves and give us something much closer to the 4 party system I noted above. The day something like that happens will be a great day for this nation - but I doubt it will make it much past my dreams in reality.