A great American President, Ronald Reagan, once described his approach toward the former Soviet Union as "trust, but verify."

Wise words. Too bad our current President doesn’t seem to understand that such a policy is sometimes needed, even among countrymen and friends.

To the contrary, the President expects absolute trust from his conservative base. He doesn’t ask for it. Nor does he necessarily feel the need to earn it. He simply insists upon it. In the early years of his presidency, many Republicans were willing to tolerate this attitude.

Indeed, in some instances, the President was followed blindly, virtually without question.

De-privatize airport security and create a new, massive, public bureaucracy? Oh, okay. Sure, Mr. President. You want to sign that campaign finance bill that you once described as unconstitutional? You must have a good reason. Spending really isn’t as unrestrained as it seems? Well . . . if you’re sure. We’ll continue to support you.

Blind trust has its time and place—when it has been earned. But the President has taken such trust for granted one too many times. No one should be too puzzled by the predicament in which he now finds himself.

The President’s base has been less than enthusiastic about several decisions made by the administration over the past few years. Moreover, they’ve watched the President’s lackluster response to their concerns and criticism. Almost without fail, the President has refused to admit so much as the possibility of a mistake. To the contrary, he has responded to voters’ concerns by demanding their trust even more vehemently.

Consider the debacle over the Harriet Miers nomination. Or the President’s reluctance to debate the appropriateness of his wireless tapping policy. The sale of U.S. port operations to a Dubai company is simply the latest in a long string of incidents in which the President has become angry with voters’ unwillingness to immediately and automatically trust an issue to his discretion.

The President’s base can take only so much lying down. It should not be shocking that many conservatives have become less trusting of the President. The real puzzle is why Bush was taken so off guard by this conservative reaction.

I mean, really. What did he expect?

In recent months, many conservatives seem to have decided that Reagan’s motto is the safest course of action when dealing with this President. They are still willing to trust Bush—to an extent—but they first want to see if his decisions will hold upon under questioning, and they want to hear the reasons behind certain policy choices before automatically lining up behind him.

The President, for his part, has reacted to this conservative stance with anger. He doesn’t seem to understand why people won’t immediately and blindly trust him. On a few occasions, his reaction has been to dig in his heels and to stand obstinately by questionable decisions. He sometimes picks battles that do not need to be picked.

The President doubtless has reasons for his policy decisions, and few conservatives question the seriousness with which he approaches his responsibilities. But his insistence upon acting as if he is infallible engenders distrust. Moreover, the President has made serious mistakes over the past few years, at least from a conservative policy perspective. Given this record, conservative are only being logical if they begin questioning his decisions now. The President has failed to do his part to control the size, scope, and cost of government, failing to issue even one veto during his entire term in office. (But suddenly claiming, quite adamantly, that he will issue a veto to defend one of his administration’s least popular decisions—the Dubai sale, mentioned above.)

The President can regain the trust that he has lost, but he will not be able to do so until he first takes time to understand the reasons that his base lost faith in him in the first place. Unfortunately for Republicans, Bush so far seems unwilling to engage in such a process.

The 2006 congressional elections are sure to reverberate with the impact of his obstinacy.

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