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An American Life (his autobiography) | 8/7/03 |
Ronald Reagan
"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it.
"Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.
"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'
"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.
I voted for him. You "centrists" were voting for Pat Brown and Jimmy Carter.
There are a couple of problems with applying this description to today's RINOs.
1) They don't get 75 or 80 percent of anything. They're lucky if they get anything at all.
2) Half the time, they don't even ask for anything. Eighty percent of zero is zero.
3) They never come back to fight for the rest. They grovel for the pittance they're given, then slink away and gobble down the Democrats' table scraps.
4) "Radical conservatives" are the only folks in the GOP these days that have any notion of principle. The rest are accommodationist cowards, opportunistic hacks, or Democrats who took a wrong turn during the credentialing process.
Great quote. Thanks!