Re: unfair.... It can be truthfully said that Reagan wasn’t always as conservative as people like to remember him as being. Indeed, if FR were around back then, he would have been called a RINO by some based on a few things he did as governor of CA. I think this could be what HW is getting at.
Well, Reagan did give us amnesty. He was not above making mistakes. In fact, at a conservative conference a Rep Congressman said it was the #1 mistake of Reagan’s presidency - he was talking about immigration and came with a very law-and-order approach to the problem.
But then GHWB made mistakes of his own, and we all know his #1 mistake - raising taxes with the Democrats.
In fact, almost every mistake the Republicans have made have been due to poor compromises with Democrats.
GHWB’s endorsement only makes the dilemma starker, as it is more of less saying - “this guy can be conservative and still reach out to the other side.” Sure he can, just like you Bush41. McCain is a champion of bipartisan nanny-statism. I think the party needs to ‘unite and move forward’ as McCain says, but unite and more forward while holding to a conservative pro-freedom agenda.
“One of McCain’s top challenges is placating conservative activists in his party while continuing to attract moderate Republicans drawn to his positions on immigration, torture and global climate change.”
“We as a party must unite and move forward and attract not only members of our own party but independents and the so-called Reagan Democrats,” McCain told the news conference after the elder Bush endorsed him.”
... Here’s a thought: Have an “Anti-illegal-immigration pro-immigration-enforcement pro-sovereignty conservatives for McCain” group. Make it explicit that part of his coalition has to be from these people.
I oppose McCain on illegal immigration. I will vote McCain in November. If everyone who opposes McCain on immigration though did not support him, he’d lose to Obama in a landslide. To me that would be worse. But we need to salvage from McCain something much much better than a weak promise to ‘secure the border’ before he redoes amnesty.
This fact should be sobering to McCain and he should and must reach out to conservatives if he wants to effect this unity.
Wow! I never thought of that, but you are right. If FR had been around in the 1970s or 1980s, many would be calling Reagan a RINO. They would be threatening to sit out the election. What is the difference between RINO Reagan and Democrat Carter/Mondale, they would be asking.