Michael Reagan: The GOP Should Dump Its 'Litmus Test'

Front Page Magazine ^ | Feb 16, 2007 | Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, heard on more than 200 talk radio stations

[meg88]

The GOP Should Dump Its Litmus Test By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | February 16, 2007

The philosopher Diogenes is said to have wandered around ancient Greece holding a lantern and seeking to find an honest man.

My fellow Republicans, sans lanterns, are now wandering around the political landscape seeking to find the perfect Republican presidential candidate.

I don’t know if Diogenes ever found that honest man, but I do know that those Republicans are never going to find the perfect candidate, simply because he does not exist.

Some Republicans insist that the only perfect candidate would be a clone of my Dad, Ronald Reagan. Aside from the fact that there is no such thing, it’s important to recognize that Ronald Reagan, as he often admitted, was anything but perfect.

One of the criticisms about former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney focuses on his record concerning the abortion issue. We are told by the modern day Diogenes clones that he can’t be trusted to fight abortion because he once, more or less, supported a woman’s right to butcher her baby.

It may come as a surprise to these purists, but Ronald Reagan once supported abortion too. Yet nobody ever questioned his strong pro-life credentials after his conversion to Republicanism. They accepted his sincerity. Why can’t they accept Mitt Romney’s?

Romney’s record shows he should be totally acceptable to all conservatives, yet because of one dubious question concerning the validity of his conversion to the pro-life side, he is deemed unsuitable to carry the conservative banner.

The same is true of Rudy Giuliani. On every major issue, he is a solidly conservative and extraordinarily adept executive, but because he backs abortion and some form of gun control, America’s mayor -- the hero of 9/11 and the man who did the impossible by cleaning up New York -- is all but ruled out as a 2008 candidate.

Not one of the major candidates is free of some real or imagined flaw that offends some conservatives.

This is madness, and if it does not stop, the GOP is going to lose the presidential election in 2008. In the search for the perfect candidate we are going to end up with an imperfect candidate. Keep in mind the truism that agreement with someone on most issues and disagreement on others is seen as normal, but should you agree with someone on every single issue imaginable … well… to put it plainly, psychologists say you’re nuts.

I recently got a letter from a conservative Christian organization that asked me if the current GOP candidates are the best the Republican Party has to offer.

“Is it possible that GOP conservative ranks are this thin?” the letter writer asked. “Has the GOP nothing better to offer? Should not pro-family pro-life voters also want a low taxes and limited government candidate before they vigorously support him? Increased taxes and expanded government hurts everyone. Was Ronald Wilson Reagan an anomaly and did he represent the values of his party?

“These GOP candidates,” the letter instructed me, “are little better than Bob Dole, Gerald Ford, or [George] H.W. Bush. Did anyone notice they all lost?”

This makes me wonder if anybody can stand up to the litmus test these people are applying to candidates.

Ronald Reagan had one litmus test he applied to candidates. Were they Republicans? If they were he backed them all the way. He would let the party choose the candidate and he would support and vote for the candidate. He didn’t go sniffing around trying to find some flaw in their character or their past. Once nominated, they were his choice.

And nobody was more candid in admitting that he was anything but perfect than my Dad. He knew that like all men, he had his flaws and he spent a lifetime combating them. Had today’s GOP litmus test been seriously applied to him, he could not have passed the test.

The Democrats don’t have litmus tests. If the nominee is a Democrat, they support their candidate all the way, and if they lose it isn’t because they didn’t fight like demons for their man or woman.

If we want to win in 2008, Republicans had better wake up, and quit talking Ronald Reagan and start being like Ronald Reagan.

[Joan Wilder]

I detested LBJ!

[texastoo]

Talk about hypocrites. The RINO's didn't mind one issue voters when Bush was running. The Archbishop in Brownsville ran half page ads weekly at least 2 months before the election criticizing abortion. He didn't name names but everyone knew Kerry is pro abortion. Bush received the majority of the vote in 2 counties on the border. The democrats won all the other election but the presidential. No other Republican won anything.

[freedomfiter2]

I was refering to any actual candidate in either the primary or general election. Michael Reagan was implying that we should accept anyone with an r by their name. I think that the establishment can push anyone they want but if the actual voters can't stomach him, it's the establishment's problem.

[mockingbyrd]

Excellent, excellent post. This is seriously looking like an election where I will have to hold my nose and vote. But then again, I didn't vote FOR Bush in 2000, I voted AGAINST Gore. Bush turned out much better than I had hoped, although he still spends like a druken sailor with a platinum credit card.

Do you think there could be a Contract with America for the presidential contenders? I think that might help unify the absolutely needed conservative base.

I remember very well the 1876 GOP convention

You write with such clairity for someone of your age ;)

[Peach]

Wasn't this delightful news? I'm so glad there are more than a few common sense conservatives left in the nation because reading FR, one would think they'd all disappeared.

There was a day our party wasn't so concerned with social issues but with our financial and military viability.

People have forgotten 9/11 and how much money that took out of our economy. A lot of people thought the markets would crash and it was because of a number of factors, mostly Americans who didn't yank out every penny, that it didn't.

Americans are too smart to fall for the one-issue candidates and positions being forced down our throats on Free Republic and I couldn't be more delighted!

The polls are looking good and bless Michael Reagan for speaking out! But if he came here today to post on FR, he'd be told he's a liberal. LOL

The forum that once took on Dan Rather couldn't take on Donald Duck now.

[My GOP]

This site is no longer the site for conservatives, its now the site for the extreme right wing fringe. How do you like this one. Post 484 on this thread.

To: onyx
Michael knew his father, but he obviously didn't understand what Reagan was all about, and neither do you.
Continue your whine, its amusing.

484 posted on 02/16/2007 12:53:57 PM PST by Reagan Man (Conservatives don't vote for liberals.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 479 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

[BlackElk]

RM: Onyx is respected around here. This is your third consecutive post to her consisting of nothing but insult. She ought not to have to put up with essentially ignorant guff posted by you without so much as a by-your-leave to facts or specific arguments. She disagrees with you and, instead of even attempting to counter her position, you have nothing to offer but insults. You have many quotes from Ronaldus Maximus on your homepage. Try to live up to the one about how he hoped to be seen as appealing to the finer aspects and not the meanest ones of our natures.

[Peach]

Oh, the toilet humor that Jim is allowing has turned this place into a laughing stock. Across the nation the media who checks in here is thinking: "We were right about Republicans. They are homophobic bigots and the men sound like Neanderthals".

[BlackElk]

Thanks.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Americans are too smart to fall for the one-issue candidates and positions being forced down our throats on Free Republic and I couldn't be more delighted!

That is the height of falsehoods. Stop playing the vicitm.

There are any number of reasons that conservative Freepers are opposing Rudy. We don't want a big govt, pro-abortion, pro-amnesty, pro-gay rights, pro-global warming kook and gun control advocate as the party nominee.

Simple.

[BlackElk]

After Goldwater and his first wife Peggy (Planned Barrenhood National Director 1940-1975) got their way in Roe vs. Wade, and 50+ million innocent babies and counting started to be slaughtered, abortion became a vitally important tenet of actual conservatism. As a movement, we are conservatives, not knee-jerk libertarians.

[Peach]

Thanks for living up to the media stereotype of republicans. Everywhere across the nation the media, who checks in on FR quite frequently, is saying "We were right. The men are Neanderthals".

Because that's what you sound like. Why don't you go on threads and support your own candidate instead of coming here and condemning those of us who support a Republican you don't like.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>This is your third consecutive post to her consisting of nothing but insult.

Insults cut both ways. You're only commenting on those posts you want to see and ignoring the others. Open your eyes and stop playing games.

[Peach]

Thankfully, Republicans across the nation don't agree with you. I know it kills you, but the poll FNC showed last night proved that Republicans actually like Rudy and that's why he's the frontrunner.

He's likable and a strong leader. You just rage against everyone who isn't Reagan and we all know it. It's sad for you and there's probably help out there -- seek it.

[onyx]

Thank you, kind sir, for defending me, but I pay no attention to the likes of that arrogant, hateful twit. When I am bored, I sometimes ridicule and mock him.

[Reagan Man]

LOL

Right. Ignore the substance of my post and obfuscate what the debate is all about. Par for the course. Rudy is a liberal. Freepers who support him are either ignoring his record for political expediecny, or they support his liberalism. Its one or the other.

[wagglebee]

Americans are too smart to fall for the one-issue candidates

I can't think of a more "one-issue candidate" than Giuliani. He did a great job in NYC after 9/11 (yet so did a lot of others like his friend Bernard Kerik) and that's all Rudy is running on that has an ounce of appeal to conservatives.

[onyx]

LOL --- well, he's not going to appreciate your post one bit, but I do. :0)

[Reagan Man]

>>>>When I am bored....

LOL You're always bored.

[nopardons]

They do and so do several 100s of FREEPERS!