I’ve been struggling for some time now trying to put into words what I have observed and the conclusions I have drawn, but it has been very difficult.

Many on the right-wing are now expressing dissatisfaction with the actions of President George W. Bush. What is unusual in my estimation is that the behavior and policies of President Bush have changed far less in the past five years than the behavior and policies of previous Presidents and their administrations in a far shorter period. To put it simply, the loud support has mutated into discontent during a time when nothing in the actions of the President has changed.

The extreme reaction from the right-wing to the nomination of Harriet Miers to the position of Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court seems to be the first obvious sign of unhappiness, despite the fact that this nomination was perfectly consistent with previous nominations by President Bush to important positions, where personal loyalty to Bush outweighed all other considerations, including those of competence and experience, regardless of how critical those two criteria would be regarded by anyone who did not value personal loyalty so highly.

The stubborn, “my way or the highway” reaction of President Bush in threatening to veto any legislation that did not conform to the approval by his administration of the purchase by a Dubai-based and owned company of the rights to control several seaports in the US was also very consistent with the entire history of this Presidency, but since this stubborn, no compromise attitude was directed towards something that played against the fear-factor that this administration has used so well to distract people from the mistakes and expansion of Presidential powers of the past four years, suddenly, many on the right-wing who had participated in the fear-fanning then became afraid themselves and were shocked when the President didn’t agree with them, and even worse, refused to even discuss the matter.

The actions and policies of the administration have not changed, the only thing that has changed is the perception of those actions and policies by some on the right-wing. Apparently being on the receiving end of a no-compromise “leadership” style is not as much fun to them as feeling that they are on the giving end.