Diana West: Its George W. Bush Not Rush Limbaugh Who is the Real Enemy of Conservatism

When I wrote my election postmortem I listed “Bush fatigue” as one of the reasons why Republicans lost in November. Diana West takes that theory one step further in her column today and says out loud what a lot of us having been thinking:

Forced to the ramparts to defend Rush Limbaugh against the spurious, low-down attacks of the Obamedia-plus-hangers-on, conservatives are letting the real enemy of  conservatism slip away. That enemy would be George W. Bush, whose stealth political legacy is a tectonic lurch Left for what is popularly thought of as “conservatism.” The resulting chaos–crisis, in fact–is exactly what the new collectivist-in-chief has seized on, not to change America’s direction, but to accelerate its Leftward shift. This continuity is what conservatives are failing to appreciate and assess, much to the detriment of their own coherence and political message.

West is entirely right, George W. Bush’s brand of neo-conservatism has done serious, and possibly lasting, damage to the Republican party and to the conservative movement. We can’t simply ignore his legacy or the effect it has had on the Republican Party or the conservative movement. We need to confront it and repudiate the out of control spending and leftward lurch that defined the Bush years.

H/T: Michelle Malkin.