Governing from the Gut

A fun new inside the Beltway quarterly arrived in my in-box at Hudson Institute today. It's called Doublethink and is published by America's Future Foundation, which is "the hot new group of young conservative professionals." I'm guess I'm neither hot nor young, as I'm not a member.

In the Spring 2004 issue is an article titled, "Blueprint for Victory: Core Republican voters aren't the key to Bush's reelection" by Todd Weiner, a research associate at the American Enterprise Institute. Weiner mistakenly believes that "George W. Bush must have the courage to benignly neglect his conservative base and head to the political center occupied by tens of millions of independent voters...The ugly truth is that most independents disagree with conservatives when it comes to social and economic issues." But just before that he said, "George W. Bush beat Al Gore among independents 47 to 45 percent." Nah, independents agree with Bush on economic issues to be sure: they like tax cuts. And social issues too: they are opposed to gay marriage.

But, Weiner may be on to something. I'm just not sure whether he knows it. It's ok, he's young. Weiner writes that for Bush to win "he must emphasize his personality." Bingo. He goes on to write:

"Can Bush still use the character issue six years after the Lewinsky imbrolio? Indeed, it is Bush's best hope of earning reelection. The war on terror has extended the shelf life of at least one character issue: leadership."

If Bush is to win in November, Weiner nails down the reason, which will be that Americans appreciate the fact that Bush governs from the gut. And his gut is nearly always right. But why? Because his gutteral values are good; they're rock solid and conservative. As an evangelical Christian, Bush can rally his base and independent voters by trumpeting his very real success on human rights issues such as the State Department's very successful efforts to curb sex trafficking of women around the globe, or his efforts to free Afghani women from the strictures of Sharia law. Weiner is wrong to suggest that Bush should abandon his conservative values, rather what he can do is build bridges between the left and right that will bring independent-minded voters into his column on election day.