In response to "An Okie Gardener's" excellent post, President Bush's Millennial Theology, "Tocqueville" (our contemporary BB contributor) posted a link to an article that also enhances our on-going discussion of why Reagan's conservative coalition is in danger.

The essay, "The Conservative Movement Dragged Down" (by Bruce Bartlett, an architect of the conservative jihad against President Bush), deserves a closer look, especially the following thought:

Citing Jeffrey Hart (who cites Wilfred McClay), Bartlett connects Bush's dissonance with historical conservatism to the President's evangelical Christianity, which, "by its very nature," says McClay, "has an uneasy relationship with conservatism" (McClay, from an Ethics and Public Policy Center conference, "American Culture and the Presidency," Washington, 23 February 2005).

Bartlett:
[E]vangelism emphasizes the personal relationship between man and God, disconnected from doctrine and tradition. In short, it is diametrically opposed to the Catholic vision of Christianity, which many conservatives view as being much more compatible with the nature of philosophical conservatism because it is anchored in doctrine and tradition.

Consequently, Bush is too easily able to invoke God in support of whatever he has decided to do. To evangelicals, his understanding of God's word is as good as anyone else's, and so he is perfectly entitled to do so. They view the depth of his belief as the principal determinant of the genuineness of his vision, not whether it is well grounded in a proper understanding of biblical principles, logic and history.


FYI: I heartily recommend the McClay lecture, which is incredibly instructive on the evangelical impulse in American history and more sympathetic than Bartlett to the President, while noting that "evangelical conservatism" poses serious pitfalls as well as "political strengths."