Posted on 02/06/2008 5:32:18 AM PST by shortstop
Maybe it's like 1976.
Maybe the Republican Party needs to go through a cleansing. Maybe it needs to be torn down so someday it can be built up again.
In 1976 the Republican bosses rejected Ronald Reagan. They mocked his conservatism and went with the liberal, Gerald Ford. We were coming out of the Nixon era, a time when about all anyone agreed on was that the Republican president had been a disappointment.
The party went with a liberal and a dynamic young guy out of Georgia – who campaigned on a platform of change – got the Democratic nod. It was a centrist establishment Republican against a Democrat outsider and the Republican candidacy went down in flames.
And America got Jimmy Carter, the most pointless president of the Twentieth Century.
Maybe this year is like 1976.
George W. Bush is Richard M. Nixon. Republicans can't wait for him to go and Democrats absolutely loathe him. He is what people want to change, they just want to turn the page and move on to something better.
Either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton play the part of Jimmy Carter. Both have exciting candidacies that are very short on specifics. Both have the potential to be absolute failures as presidents. Like Carter, they have the potential to be one-term wonders. They have the potential to follow liberal priorities right into the swamp Jimmy Carter mired the nation in.
Somehow, Barack Obama chants things about hope in a way that gets more votes than when Jesse Jackson chanted things about hope. Somehow, people have decided to read into the Obama candidacy every unresolved political fantasy of their lives. Somehow, the media and the Democrats have decided – with a straight face – that Barack Obama is the second coming of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
Hillary Clinton has likewise taken on mythic proportions in the enthusiasm of her supporters.
But both Obama and Clinton will do well not to fall flat on their faces once in office.
And it's quite likely one of them will be the next president of the United States.
Because of this year's Gerald Ford – Senator John McCain.
He is the sort of soulless candidate who can inspire only through fear. He is a man without abiding political principle, a war hero whose war ended two generations ago. A man who in no way represents the philosophy or values of his party.
A man grassroots Republicans are going to turn their backs on.
This year is like 1976.
And Mitt Romney is Ronald Reagan.
This year, the Republican bosses are going to deny Mitt Romney the nomination. They are going to cynically play politics, they are going to go with the liberal they think can win, and they are going to value victory over principle. They are going to forget the fact that Republicans who abandon principle for success invariably end up with neither.
So it will be Jimmy Carter Take Two and Mitt Romney will go into the wilderness.
But if he is smart, he will follow the example of Ronald Reagan. Reagan used the years from 1976 to 1980 to continue his daily radio commentaries and to travel the country speaking to whomever would listen to him. He perfected his understanding of the Constitution. He spoke to group after group, preaching the simple straight-foward gospel of freedom, self-reliance, respect for life and the glory of being an American.
And at the end of four years he had not only his party's nomination, he had one of the biggest general election margins in history.
He persisted and he prevailed and he became president of the United States.
That needs to be Mitt's plan.
He got robbed this go 'round. His party abandoned not just him, but its own bedrock. Mitt needs to spend four years internalizing the gospel of conservatism and constitutionalism. He needs to get this stuff in his bones. And he needs to preach it across the country.
This year is like 1976.
We've nominated a liberal and we've rejected a potentially great leader.
The one will be gone soon, and – if he's wise – the other will start preparing now for 2012.
This year is like 1976. And that one didn't go very well for us.
McCain’s capacity for revenge is what scares me. I never saw it until the campaign. His blinding desire to take Massachusetts was almost diabolical.
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He was there for a fundraiser. Saw a commentator say that the need for money “was the dirty little secret” of that visit. He’d rather look tough than look weak basically, so he made it appear more of a campaign stop.
McCain’s capacity for revenge is what scares me. I never saw it until the campaign. His blinding desire to take Massachusetts was almost diabolical.
____________________________________
He was there for a fundraiser. Saw a commentator say that the need for money “was the dirty little secret” of that visit. He’d rather look tough than look weak basically, so he made it appear more of a campaign stop.
Ford's sop to conservatives was to drop Nelson Rockerfeller as VP and name Bob Dole instead.
That move actually came close to winning him the election. The Rockerfeller Republican wing (yeah, they are still with us) loves to point out that if he had kept Rocky and carried New York, Carter would have lost.
The reality is the move energized the conservative base (although Bob Dole was merely a non-Rockerfeller moderate) enough to make the election competitive.
“There will probably never be another Ronald Reagan.”
“You were doing fine until you hit that sentence.”
No he wasn’t. He was being realistic.
Shortstop’s estimation of Romney was accurate: he’s certainly no Reagan (and I say that having voted for Mr. Romney in the primary yesterday). Only 2 weeks ago, the majority of Freepers were _bashing_ Romney when compared to Thompson or Hunter. And neither of THEM were “Reagans”, either.
Leaders of Reagan’s stature seem to show up once every 50-75 years. I don’t think I’ll live to see one (I’m older).
Shortstop was right. There probably _won’t_ be another conservative leader like Reagan in American history, because the country that elected Mr. Reagan in 1980 simply doesn’t exist any more. It has changed THAT much in thirty years. At this point, I don’t see how the pendulum can be “swung back” to where an electoral majority of Americans would vote for someone of Ron Reagan’s persuasion again.
I’ll be flamed for saying it, but I sense that the voice of conservatism is destined to become weaker in the years ahead. It will still be there, but “heard” by less.
I have resigned myself to the fact that certain parts of the country are forever changed, never to resemble “traditional America” again. The only solution (if it can be called one) is to relocate to those areas (and states) that will still resemble “the America that was” for the longest portion of time - at least for the time I have left.
Enough ramblin’....
- John
You make the same error most people do. You only measure Reagan as a finished product. You ignore the journey he traveled to get there. Reagan was a pro-choice Democrat at one point. His early political career was more moderate than conservative. Romney is propably more conservative at his age than Reagan was. Romney may never be a Reagan, but an honest comparison would admit he has potential.
I’ve been on FR for years now and have never seen so many of them move so irrationally to the “fringe” of the party and politics in general. Many I know have stopped visiting the FR site beacuse of the nasty, caustic destructive McCain talk. He wasn’t my first choice, but he’s a good American, strong on the military, tax cuts and abortion. Those are my big issues and I therefore supported him in the AZ vote.
FR’s that “sit out” this election hurt our country. Now’s the time to do what we did about the immigration vote...exercise control of our party platform. Don’t quit.....just get busy crafting the party platform. McCain is there to work for US and I’m going to do everything in my power to have my him hear my voice.
I hope other Freepers get on board as well!
“At one time he was a pro choice Democrat. Life, maturity and an understanding of people and politics forged him into the leader he became.”
But not within a few months of declaring his intention to seek the oval office..
Actually, there is truth that Rommey is like Ronald the great in some ways. Ronald Reagan signed the first abortion law in California you know as a Repub governor. He change from being a Dem to a Repub. In todays suspicious climate, he might have been considered a flip - flopper.
Quote; “But can we survive 4 years fo Jimmy Carter redux?”
Sometimes to know where you are going, you have to remember where you have been. Reagan’s policies and tax cuts produced 25 years of growth and stability. Slowly, but inexorably the people of this country have forgotten, or never knew, what the state of this couintry was before Reagan took over. Now they will be reminded what it is like to have: lines at the gas pump, double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, a weakened military, weakened world status as a super-power, your citizens taken hostage, nations like China, Russia and Iran on the march, etc. etc.
Can we survive a Jimmy Carter redux? I honestly do not know, but sometimes you just can’t stop a suicide from happening.
Horse crap one does not become conservitve because of external exposure to the electorate thats called pandering..
Agreed.
Agree... and our base seems to have embraced the 'non-think' that occured during those years as well.
As a Fredhead highly disappointed that McCain (a few months ago a 7% bottom of the list candidate) is going to be the nominee, I have to ask myself what can McCain do to sweeten the deal? What could he do to get the Fredheads and the Romney supporters to get out and vote for him in November? It would have to be a brilliant VP choice, and I mean brilliant.
Who on the ticket would FIRE UP Conservatives? Who on the ticket would generate discussion for weeks?
The answer: A woman, and what a woman. - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Quote: “First of all when Reagan/Bush was in Office, flip-flop Romney was a liberal-independent or something similar. Most of all, at present he is only a former Governor, without any role in the gov of the US.”
Wasn’t Reagan a democrat at one time and only a former governor of California when he was elected POTUS?
McCain fought really hard for amnesty as president he will shove it done our throats...I can’t see a Dem presidency worse than a McCain presidency. As for judges, McCain has said before Sandra Day O’Connor is his favorit judge. There is no reason to vote for McCain really.
“Somewhere, lurking in the weeds out there,....”
Therein lies the problem.Spineless passivity isn’t going to save this country. I agree with some others on this thread..
We may well never see another Ronnie.I sure do miss him.
A vice-president plays no role in government really so it makes no difference to me who his VP is...although I think Huckabee sold his soul in order to be VP.
“Somewhere, lurking in the weeds out there,....”
Therein lies the problem.Spineless passivity isn’t going to save this country. I agree with some others on this thread..
We may well never see another Ronnie.I sure do miss him.
OOOps! Sorry for the double post!!
DAMN FINGERS....:)
We need to focus on winning the house and senate if that is even possible. Even if the stay at home conservatives voted, I fear they won’t overcome the obabma mania I fear.
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