Placing the blame (or, the benefits of running against Reaganomics rather than Reagan)

Lakoff and the Rockridge folks offer some sage advice to folks on the left: blaming Bush alone for his failures means miscasting reality in a way that is not to our benefit (and rather misses the more important point). Better is to place the blame squarely at the feet of conservatism as a whole, for the Bush administration is merely a putting into practice of those faulty ideals.

The mantra of incompetence has been an unfortunate one. The incompetence frame assumes that there was a sound plan, and that the trouble has been in the execution. It turns public debate into a referendum on Bush’s management capabilities, and deflects a critique of the impact of his guiding philosophy. It also leaves open the possibility that voters will opt for another radically conservative president in 2008, so long as he or she can manage better. Bush will not be running again, so thinking, talking and joking about him being incompetent offers no lessons to draw from his presidency.

Incompetence obscures the real issue. Bush’s conservative philosophy is what has damaged this country and it is his philosophy of conservatism that must be rejected, whoever endorses it.

The piece makes clear that this administration has been very successful at getting its agenda accomplished, and that it is that success, not mere incompetence, that has unraveled so many government functions that we have been hapless in the face of real circumstances.

Conservative philosophy has three fundamental tenets: individual initiative, that is, government’s positive role in people’s lives outside of the military and police should be minimized; the President is the moral authority; and free markets are enough to foster freedom and opportunity.

Katrina? folks should have been fending for themselves. Disasterous war? the President needs to carry his moral convictions around the world. And so on. It's a useful lens for understanding Republican spin (and general media coverage) as well as for reconceptualizing the best arguments to bring to the American people in the fall elections.