Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?

Cancelling the Supreme Court Showdown

By Andrew R Quinio
Posted on 10/06/05

Did you ever have that Christmas when you thought you would get something really big and exciting but ended up getting a pair of socks instead? I know it’s too early for Christmas, but think back to some of the more disappointing Christmas mornings when you discovered a dress shirt and tie instead of that cool Power Wheels car you could actually ride in that your mom promised you. When President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, it was like receiving that disappointing present all over again. Why didn’t you get me that cool Power Rangers transforming zord like you promised, Mom? And why didn’t you nominate a staunch Scalia conservative like you promised, Mr. President?

I was rooting for Janice Rogers Brown, a justice that would truly set the Supreme Court on the right course of strict interpretation. Ginsburg would be shaking in her robe with Brown as her colleague. Instead we got Miers who, though intelligent and very accomplished, is no Janice Rogers Brown. As you may have read in every other right-leaning publication, I am not the only conservative who is disappointed. Red State America is crossing its arms and pouting its face, just as I did at the age of 9 after I didn’t get the Christmas gift I had expected.

And who can blame conservatives for being disappointed? We all remember Bush’s encouraging and hope raising declaration: “I earned political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” But he didn’t spend it on us, the very people who helped him earn that capital. Dozens of Berkeley College Republicans didn’t pain their feet walking precincts, bloody their knuckles knocking on doors, and stomach bland coffee and stale muffins for a Justice Miers.

We were disappointed because we didn’t get what we expected, which was a big political fight. We not only expected a big political fight, we wanted one, because it would have been an opportunity for our side to look good and the other side to look terrible. We wanted the conservative judicial ideology to face the gauntlet of obnoxious liberal inquisition, rather than hide behind placatory political maneuvering.

If Bush wants to regain the confidence of his base, he needs to rediscover the post-reelection Dubya that enthused so many of his supporters. We don’t want cautious George, we want the cowboy Dubya who sticks to his guns. After all, the grassroots is more than happy to provide the ammo.

Dubya the Cowboy needs to lead us into high noon and pick the fights that we have been aching to jump in to. We are still waiting for that big Social Security fight. It got tons of attention in the beginning of the year, but then it seemed to disappear. President Bush mentioned it briefly at Tuesday’s press conference, but he needs to get that issue back in the cross-hairs. Why not a big fight over the tax code? A strong proposal to simplify the tax code would face bitter opposition from the left, but that is a fight that Conservatives want to enter. Let’s fight for the missile defense system that Bush has been calling for since his first term. Let’s fight for drilling in Alaska. Let’s fight for permanent tax cuts. These are our ideals and we are ready to fight for them, just like we were ready on Monday.

We have been ready for quite some time. We never got upset every time someone criticized Bush for being a cowboy because we like that side of Bush. “Don’t mess with Texas” shouldn’t be limited to t-shirts and bumper stickers. It should act as a sincere warning to Bushs’ challengers that he is serious about his agenda. We shouldn’t exchange it for, “Don’t scare Texas.”

Our dissatisfaction with Miers’ nomination should signal to Bush that we don’t want him to hold anything back, because that means holding our ideals back. If Dubya runs head-on into these battles, he will regain his conservative following. It won’t even be hard to reclaim the base; it is too heart-rending for conservatives to stay disappointed in this president, so they will make a lot of room for forgiveness and redemption.

When your side wins an election, your side usually gets a greater say in what direction the Nation will go. So why have the shirt and tie, when you can have the shiny new toy? Why be a girly man when you can be a cowboy? The Republican base does not want cautious force. It wants a showdown. We want an enduring agenda, even if it means a no-holds-barred political skirmish.

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