MARINA DEL REY, CA -- George W. Bush's presidential candidacy is widely viewed by Republicans as their sure path back to the White House. However, instead of ushering in a new era of freedom and prosperity, Bush offers liberalism smuggled under the cloak of compassion, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
     "Following in his father's timid footsteps, Governor Bush seeks to avoid appearing overly wedded to capitalism by declaring himself a champion of compassion," said Andrew Bernstein. "It is a reprise of the theme of his father, whose notion of how to fight the liberalism of his Democratic opponent in 1988 was to declare that the Republicans' goal was not individualism and capitalism, but a 'kinder and gentler' nation."
     Bernstein said that the Republicans were taking the right course in 1994 when they signed the "Contract with America," promising to try to reduce government's role in American lives. Congressional leaders promised to privatize Social Security, cut taxes, and initiate school vouchers; promises, which allowed Republicans to win major victories at the polls.
     "But Congressional Republicans soon abandoned their semi-capitalistic principles," Bernstein said. "When the Democrats launched a moral counterattack, accusing their foes of 'mean-spiritedness' and of victimizing the poor, the Republicans quickly retreated. Rather than upholding an individual's moral right to his own wealth, the Republicans launched a hand-wringing capitulation to the proponents of the welfare state.'
     Bernstein noted that Bush and his fellow "compassionate" Republicans have accepted the moral premise of the Democrats that one has an unchosen obligation to support anyone whose needs are greater than one's own, making Republicans almost indistinguishable from Democrats.
     "'Compassionate conservatism' is, in essence, nothing more than the theory -- and the practice -- of the welfare state," Bernstein observed. "Bush and the Republican exponents of this 'compassionate conservatism' are frightened appeasers, scurrying to avoid being labeled heartless for supporting capitalism and freedom."