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GOP Young Gun: 'Reagan Revolution' is over
The Hill ^

Posted on 12/10/2010 8:55:42 AM PST by Sub-Driver

GOP Young Gun: 'Reagan Revolution' is over By Michael O'Brien - 12/10/10 10:47 AM ET

The "Reagan Revolution" that spurred a GOP renaissance in Washington is dead, one of the party's new faces said Friday.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee and one of the Republican "Young Guns," said that the movement sparked by President Reagan's election in 1980 fizzled out with Democrats' wins in the congressional elections of 2006.

"The Reagan Revolution ended in 2006 when Pelosi took the gavel — definitely in 2008," Ryan said in a video interview with The Wall Street Journal. "So a new era is beginning."

Republicans had long credited the resurgence of the party led by Reagan for their victories in the 1994 congressional elections, in which they won control of the House and Senate, as well as for the victory of George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

But Republicans have also sought to recast the party as the GOP of a new generation that has broken from past leaders and learned from its mistakes. That sentiment had in part animated the new crop of "Young Guns" — a trio of Ryan, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and incoming House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — to promote themselves as new faces of the GOP.

The new Republicans coming to Washington, many of whom hail from a later generation than their predecessors, aren't interested in the kind of "small ball" that dominated political debate in the 1990s, Ryan said.

"No more school uniforms and prescription drugs — it's the big picture," he said. "And that's the kind of healthy conversation we've got to have in this country."


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: cantor; kevinmccarthy; paulryan; reaganrevolution; ryan; wisconsin; younggun; youngguns
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To: Senator Goldwater
Right. Post #93 and #97 summarize it pretty well for me.

In the atmosphere of the Lying Left, it's a concern that the truth is lost in the shuffle somewhere. I mean one legitimate concern could be a reaction on the right so violent and unrestrained that we don't end up with the Constitutional republic and limited government that we long for, but a Robespierre-like bloodbath followed by who knows what.

101 posted on 12/11/2010 7:56:20 AM PST by Jim W N
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To: Jim 0216
Well, as I said, extremism and fanaticism defy logic. Point being, it's not an open-and-shut case - there seems to be sensible arguments on both sides of this subject which I consider not very important, but interesting.

For the sake of interest then I will point out that the goals of a movement do not matter concerning tyranny, as much as the means. All utopian movements which avow use of the state as the means of achieving their end, will naturally and logically lead to an oppressive state if taken to the extreme.

Conversely, libertarianism avows the destruction of the use of the state. Taken to its extreme, libertarianism might be said to end in anarchy, but it cannot end in oppression by the state.

It is logical to say over eating and weight loss may both lead to death if taken to the extreme, but it is not only illogical to argue that weight loss will lead to obesity if taken to the extreme, it is completely impossible.

To me this is a fundamental, logical case to instill into the political argument, because one of the Left's few successful propoganda ploys is to scare people with the idea that NAZI control lies just over the horizon from libertarianism.

As I said, an all powerful state is a multi-headed Hydra, but individual liberty is a narrow pathed alternative. What exactly was the difference between living under Hitler or Stalin? Very little except for the fact that the NAZIs hadn't yet had time to build their internal security organs to the same maturity as the Soviets. Now look at the U.S. Constitution as written in 1776 with an eye to how it compared to monarchy, and imagine taking it to the extreme (no central government, or no government at all). Perhaps not good, but certainly not state tyranny.

102 posted on 12/11/2010 8:07:37 AM PST by SampleMan (If all of the people currently oppressed shared a common geography, bullets would already be flying.)
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To: Sub-Driver

He’s right. Washington has become incapable of change from within. It will come from without.


103 posted on 12/11/2010 8:09:41 AM PST by mo
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To: SampleMan
Right, but anything can be carried to a point where it's unrecognizable from its beginnings and even the right can go so far that chaos is followed by tyranny.

I can understand the reaction here to what I said because the Lying Left portrays legitimate conserve/American values as "extreme," because the Left has itself become extreme.

Post #93 and #97 address what we're talking about and summarize the relevance of this subject pretty well for me (even though this has taken us way off the original subject in the article/thread).

In the atmosphere of the Lying Left, it's a concern that the truth is lost in the shuffle somewhere. In the context of Post#97, I think one legitimate concern could be a reaction on the right so violent and unrestrained that we don't end up with the Constitutional republic and limited government that we long for, but a Robespierre-like bloodbath followed by who knows what.

104 posted on 12/11/2010 8:25:11 AM PST by Jim W N
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To: Reagan Man

I know huh. Imagine, thinking Reagan was to the left of Nazis and then thinking the Reagan revolution is alive. The nerve of some people.


105 posted on 12/11/2010 8:58:45 AM PST by SwankyC ("I'm no bigot. I will pray with any man." - Samuel Adams)
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To: Jim 0216
Right, but anything can be carried to a point where it's unrecognizable from its beginnings and even the right can go so far that chaos is followed by tyranny.

I would have to call you on facts not being in evidence here.

If by "Right" you simply mean the GOP, then you are correct, but that doesn't say much. If by "Right" you mean the push for the sanctity of individual freedom, then you have no evidence or even imaginable scenario to fall back on. At no time in human history has a push to decrease the power of the state ever directly led to a tyrannical state. Nor, is there an imaginable scenario on how it might. Note how different the French 'Rights of Man' are from our Declaration of Independence. Using the state to create any utopia can and will go astray, but eliminating the means does not result in a bigger means.

You wouldn't suggest that the Amish are going to naturally start driving giant tractors if they take their practices to the extreme? You might argue that they would stop using all tools and live in bushes, but not that they would turn full circle and start monster truck racing. I think one legitimate concern could be a reaction on the right so violent and unrestrained that we don't end up with the Constitutional republic and limited government that we long for, but a Robespierre-like bloodbath followed by who knows what.

If the "Right" is defined by the need to enforce religious morals or economic law using the power of the state, then you are correct. That is why I refuse to allow that to be posed as an alternative to socialism. The true alternative isn't another form of state controlled utopia, it is a small unobtrusive state that meddles as little as possible in as little as possible. Could anarchy be the result if pushed too far? Yes, but anarchy and state tyranny are not the same thing.

I think you are confusing the idea that all things can be taken to a harmful extreme with the notion that all political thought ends in state tyranny if taken to the extreme.

106 posted on 12/11/2010 9:42:15 AM PST by SampleMan (If all of the people currently oppressed shared a common geography, bullets would already be flying.)
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To: SampleMan
At no time in human history has a push to decrease the power of the state ever directly led to a tyrannical state.

I would have to disagree with you. Two examples would be the Bolshevik Revolution and The French Revolution and what followed each.

anarchy and state tyranny are not the same thing.

No but tyranny may very well follow anarchy and visa-versa. It's like maximum randomness on steroids. The answer is true moderation. Again, not the Leftist relativist version but true middle-of-the-road exemplified by our original political and economic systems and freedoms coupled with individual self-governing, self-discipline and moderation.

107 posted on 12/11/2010 9:57:47 AM PST by Jim W N
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To: Jim 0216
I would have to disagree with you. Two examples would be the Bolshevik Revolution and The French Revolution and what followed each.

Neither one of those was based on individual liberty trumping the power of the state. Both were strongly based on the premise that the power of the state should be used to provide individual happiness. Not surpisingly they both killed a lot of people in order to make them happy.

No but tyranny may very well follow anarchy and visa-versa.

Concur, and its a logical argument that a state that is too weak might lead to a strong fisted backlash or foreign domination. However, those are jumps to the opposite extreme, not natural progressions of the movement to its extreme. An analogy is pacifism, which can result in being killed, but will not result in killing.

So we agree that any extreme can be bad, but very much disagree that the extreme position to the right is fascism. All forms of state domination are firmly on the Left, where an all powerful state does what it must to provide for the "greater good".

108 posted on 12/11/2010 10:19:37 AM PST by SampleMan (If all of the people currently oppressed shared a common geography, bullets would already be flying.)
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To: dfwgator
Dude, it was over when George HW became President.

You'd have to go back farther .... to the 1980 convention, when Poppy blackmailed his way onto the ticket, and got a power cut of the patronage.

Poppy had so much swing during the Reagan Administration that Reagan himself was on the defensive much of the time, trying to keep from being painted into a corner by Poppy's guys (James Baker, Dick Darman, Nicholas Brady et al.).

Then Poppy's guys ran off all the Reaganauts like Jude Wanniski and Arthur Laffer. The second Reagan Administration was really Poppy's first ..... and in that light, the People can be seen to have voted for Slick Willie as much out of Poppy fatigue as for any other reason.

109 posted on 12/11/2010 1:32:02 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: GraceG
I didn’t like HW one bit. He sold out his conservative values to “play nice” ....

I share your disdain, and Ross Perot's ("There are lions in the jungle, and there are tigers in the jungle. You're a rabbit."), but George H.W. Bush isn't conservative. He's a Yankee snob who caters for other Yankee snobs. Period.

110 posted on 12/11/2010 1:35:25 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus; GraceG
Same, btw, as his daddy Pressy had done, the ascended shoe salesman who figured out life would be more rewarding as a Yalie brown-noser. And parlayed that willingness to mingle and serve into a seat in the U.S. Senate .... from Connecticut. Not Ohio.
111 posted on 12/11/2010 1:41:09 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: dools0007world
[yearning for at some semblance of a retuen to traditional America.]
When I read the writing on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial, I don't see any mention of any party - other than the implicit American one.
 
What I see written there, are core American principles that must be understood and articulated if America is to be restored as per its original specification:
"TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, governments are instituted among men"
[Maybe you and I, LomanBill, can start a trend.]
"NOTHING IS MORE CERTAINLY WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF FATE THAN THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE TO BE FREE.
ESTABLISH THE LAW FOR EDUCATING THE COMMON PEOPLE.
THIS IT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE FREEPER TO EFFECT AND ON A GENERAL PLAN...."
Each one teach one, FRiends.
 

112 posted on 12/11/2010 3:30:38 PM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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