Reagan was not perfect, though he embraced far more conservative principles than any GOP President and nominee that followed him. Reagan got us on the right course, and Bush turned us the opposite direction which we haven’t changed course from.
Yes I haven’t been on this particular internet site long. I didn’t realize that its members were so opposed to the opinions of new people. Perhaps it is that fact that has caused so many of you to become blind to the fact that there is no difference between the GOP and Dems. We have been on a slow march towards full blown socialism in this country since the early 20th Century. Those who call themselves conservative are supposed to be the one’s opposing it, not simply hoping for their guy’s version of it. I’m not trying to “sow discontent” - in fact if you call yourself a conservative and you are content with what the GOP has been doing, then there is something seriously wrong with you.
If you folks want to just hear yourselves talk and be cheerleaders for another lackluster, big government GOP nomineee then maybe you should close registration to the site.
What I believe is the problem with the views that people like yourself have Brices, is that you have been conditioned to look at things in a static means. When you see an issue you see a Republican way and a Democratic way, but can't see outside of that singular course.
For example Health Care: McCain has a plan that involves manipulation of the tax code, new regulations on insurance companies, etc. Obama has a plan that includes a government run insurance plan, mandates on employers, etc.
Now when you look at it merely as left vs right you would say Obama’s plan is far worse than McCain's. But when you look at it as statism vs conservatism, you would see that both plans involve government control of the health care industry. Obama’s is full blown socialist health care, McCain's is almost socialist health care. Either way we get more government control over health care than we currently have. Obama is 5 steps forward to government owned hospitals and doctors, McCain's plan is 3 steps forward. Either way that's the direction we are going in, and therefore there is no difference in what they fundamentally believe about health care, it's the details they differ. Both McCain and Obama believe the federal government can and should fix the problem.
Conservatives, on the other hand, look at the issue differently and see the reason we have problems in the health care industry to begin with is because of the federal government. We believe that we need to get the government out of the health care business in order to solve the problems. We need to phase out the FDA, phase out Medicare/Medicaid, eliminate the corporate welfare to the health care industry, and roll back legislation.
Issue after issue you can see that McCain and Obama are on the wrong side of the issue, because their core fundamental belief is that government can and should solve all of the problems in this country. Conservatives however believe that government is the problem.