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Ronald Reagan on the importance of political compromise(in his own words)
An American Life (his autobiography) | 8/7/03 | Ronald Reagan

Posted on 08/07/2003 2:05:04 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat

"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.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: compromiseorsellout; conservatism; howfaristoofar; howtogainpower; howtowin; idealism; incrementalism; liberalism; politicalreality; pragmatism; reagan; reagancompromise; reaganconservatives; ronaldreagan; winheartsandminds
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To: Dane
parrotting the biker bars words on FR.

That biker bar is a hell of a creepy place. I was directed to it by another FReeper and since then have actually been trying to be nicer to ppl here on FR just so I don't get booted from here and have to end up there. I suppose I don't have "the gift".

161 posted on 08/08/2003 11:32:04 AM PDT by jmc813 (Check out the FR Big Brother 4 thread! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/943368/posts)
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To: Diddle E. Squat
Test
162 posted on 08/09/2003 8:55:28 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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To: Diddle E. Squat
Dang, it didn't work
163 posted on 08/09/2003 8:55:49 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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To: Diddle E. Squat
What didn't work?
164 posted on 08/09/2003 10:50:30 AM PDT by justshe ("Do you trust a Democrat to protect America?")
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To: justshe
Was just testing an html technique. Total tangent.
165 posted on 08/09/2003 11:28:46 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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Worth a bump in times like these.


166 posted on 04/11/2011 12:03:59 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
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To: Diddle E. Squat

Bump.


167 posted on 06/25/2012 2:56:49 PM PDT by NoLibZone (I trust Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Cain, Perry, Bachman : I trust their judgment on their 2012 pick.)
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