Contra the triumphalism of many liberals—for whatever reason, the Democratic Party in the US has much of the same “Natural Governing Party” view of itself as Canada’s Liberal Party, though it’s spent far less of the past century in power than the Grits—and somewhat despite the ways in which the years in the driver’s seat have pulled the GOP away from its conservative principles, the three decades (give or take) since the Reagan Revolution have seen some major substantive conservative successes and achievements which have brought significant benefits to this country. Matthew Continetti has a useful brief rundown of some accomplishments of which conservatives can be proud, including welfare reform and decreases in drug use and violent crime.There is one accomplishment he lists, though, which strikes me as possibly double-edged:
In 2002, President Bush named Philip Mangano executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Mangano has spent the last six years pointing out that the way to reduce homelessness is to give people homes. Experts call this the “housing first” strategy. It works. The most recent data show that the number of chronically homeless declined by 30 percent between 2005 and 2007.
One has to wonder, how much of that was only possible because of subprime mortgates?
That article made me laugh, in a bitter place inside.
But I must admit – in some cases, conservatives did achieve successes…as conservatives define success.
Well, obviously there will be cases where what conservatives and liberals define as success differ. Conservatives, for instance, regard a falling abortion rate as a success, where most liberals do not. That said, the fact that violent crime has dropped (to take one case) is a success by anybody’s warrant. Ditto the fact that there have been no further attacks on American soil since 9/11 (something which was far from a certainty at the time, to say the least).