Posted on 01/05/2015 5:39:04 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
When Jeb Bush announced he was running for President conservatives accused him of being RINO. (Republican in name only) Conservatives have said the same thing about Mitt Romney, Chris Christie and a laundry list of moderate to liberal Republicans. The fact though is that the progressives in the GOP aren’t the RINO’s. The Republican Party was founded as the party of big government in 1854. They were the remains of the Whig Party, which at the time was the party of Hamiltonian big government. It was the Democrats who favored Jeffersonian small government. The RINO’s aren’t big government progressives, the Republican Party has always been their party. The RINO’s are conservatives who have been trying to find a landing place since FDR began pushing us out of the Democrat Party.
If we look at the last 60 years of Republican Presidential nominees we can only count three times when a conservative was nominated. In 1964 Barry Goldwater was nominated, he was arguably conservative despite the fact that later in life he favored abortion on demand. He was basically a Kennedy Republican who favored tax cuts and opposed LBJ’s expansive welfare state. In 1980 and 1984 Ronald Reagan won the GOP nomination. Reagan was largely a conservative but let’s not kid ourselves about how conservative he actually was. As Governor of California he signed into law bills allowing abortion and no-fault divorce. He later said he regreted those decisions but not enough to stop him from nominating progressives like Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. He also raised taxes and the Federal debt while in the White House.
Other than Goldwater and Reagan, the Republican Party has nominated one moderate progressive after another. Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Bush 41 and 43, Dole, McCain and Romney were all party progressives. If we want to pretend these nominees are RINO’s then we have to pretend like most of the Republican Party is a fraud. In reality all of these nominees are in keeping with the historic Republican Party. The GOP gave America its first progressive President in Theodore Roosevelt. It gave us a laundry list of progressive Senators and Congressmen, including the progressive La Follette dynasty in Wisconsin the elder of which ran on the Progressive Party ticket in 1924 and won 17% of the vote. There hasn’t been a Republican President who has reduced the Federal budget since Calvin Coolidge in the 20’s. Coolidge is perhaps the most conservative President of the 20th century. His replacement was Herbert Hoover, a typical progressive Republican.
No doubt that party philosophy can change over time. For most of the 19th century the Democrats were the party of small government. They looked to Thomas Jefferson rather than Alexander Hamilton for guidance in governing. By the 20th century the Democrats had shifted to the progressive outlook, having been swept away with the progressive movement which started gaining steam after the Civil War. President Woodrow Wilson represents the Democrats formal break with their historic conservative past, which in the last election or two has been finalized with the elimination of the last blue dog conservative Democrats. By the time FDR was elected, the Democrats had moved well to the left of the Republicans. That doesn’t mean the Republicans had moved to the right, only that the Democrats shifted left. The Republicans have stayed remarkably consistent, the difference between Hoover and Romney is negligible.
Conservatives have no party to flock to. The Democrats largely pushed conservatives out decades ago. The Republicans have only taken us on because it helps them retain their power. While the Republican Party is more conservative today than the Democrats, its core philosophy isn’t small government but rather a slow shift to bigger government. This is in contrast with the Democrats who want a shift to bigger government immediately. Make no mistake though, conservatives are the RINO’s. We’re the outsiders in the Republican Party, we always have been. The GOP wasn’t created as a party of small government, it was created as a Hamiltonian party of expanding Federal power and expenditures. The GOP has remained true to its core philosophy, the Bush’s, Romney’s and Christie’s of the party have made sure of that.
Calvin Coolidge was a solid limited government president. Probably THE prime example of the 20th century. He was often criticized as a do-nothing, but that’s exactly what I’m looking for.
Okay, so we will tell the Republicans to stick it. We will start the US. Independence Party. The platform should be Small Government, a flat tax of 7.5%, securing our borders and withdrawing from the Anti-American (aka the UN).
Here we go again!
Did Calvin Coolidge spent his time golfing or visited Hawaii? He did more than Zero...
Good point
Political parties are just buses that get their passengers from Point A to Point B.
If the bus you’re on deviates from your desired route, you find another bus.
and they managed to convince the Republicans to fund Obamacare for a year, funded all the Illegals AND funded the derivatives market.
Learning ABSOLUTIST NOTHING from 2008.
Oh but you think Conservatives should blindly support the Republicans no matter what they do???
LOL!
Don't accuse me of supporting that which I did not say .
Also Spell check is your friend, most especially when shouting.
“The platform should be Small Government, a flat tax of 7.5%,”
I don’t think our founding fathers paid that much in taxes.
The issue to me isn’t that one candidate in 2016 isn’t more conservative or not conservative enough. My only issue is with the term RINO when ascribed to progressive, liberal Republicans. Let’s stop calling people like Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie RINO’s. Call them what they really are, big government progressive Republicans.
Coolidge is criticized by progressive historians as a “do-nothing.” In reality he kept taxes low and lowered Federal expenditures during the course of his Presidency. In 1923 Federal expenditures were $31 billion by 1928 they were down to $30 billion. Despite lowering taxes, tax receipts were up substantially in the 20’s with the extra money paying off Wilson’s war debt.
I reached the same conclusion several years ago.
While I do vote for some Republicans, I think I am more in tune with the emerging Constitutional party.
Slight correction - a CONSUMPTION tax of 7.5%. Conservatives should be vehemently opposed to the income tax!
I’ve seen this site support Republicans, like last election, just to send a message.
This site just does not want any more Liberal Republicans in name only.
I’m tired of Republicans having a conniption fit when conservatives want to hold neutralized and compromised Republicans like Boehner or McConnel accountable.
I’m sorry but the Republican party funding Obama-care for a year is NOT acceptable.
The only way a consumption tax should be supported is if the income tax amendment is repealed.
The debate you are talking about is not limited to Free Republic. LOL!
It’s all over the web and talk radio in case you are not aware???
That's as far as I got reading this.
I know what you mean. The Conservatives call people rino who really are not rino's they are cino's if anything.
Few if any of them (Candidates) are going to be a small government, fiscally conservative, social conservative that is also whatever brand of Christian is most popular today, who also can put two sentences together and sound intelligent, who can keep the media at bay because he/she is as pure as the wind driven snow and also will appeal to people who don't eat and sleep politics.
So let the games begin!
I like Calvin Coolidge by the way.
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