Andrew Sullivan: Bush’s Faith and Incompetence

Andrew Sullivan has an interesting post on the fundamentalism that makes it impossible for Bush to ever change course: “Faith is to the new conservatism … what ideology was to the old leftism: an unquestioned orthodoxy from which all policy flows.”

Andrew Sullivan:

I don’t think you can understand the actions of this administration – i.e. make them make internal sense – without understanding the depth of the president’s fundamentalist mindset. He’s a fundamentalist convert and an alcoholic. Faith is the one thing that rescued him from a life of chaos. So fundamentalist faith itself – regardless of its content – is integral to his entire worldview. And fundamentalism cannot question; it is not empirical; it is the antithesis of skepticism. Hence this allegedly “conservative” president attacking conservatism at its philosophical core: its commitment to freedom, to doubt, to constitutional process, to prudence, to limited government, balanced budgets and the rule of law. Faith is to the new conservatism is what ideology was to the old leftism: an unquestioned orthodoxy from which all policy flows.

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