Posted on 04/26/2013 7:48:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The unfailing reverence on the American right for Ronald Reagan is understandable. He was the only exemplar of modern conservatism to win the White House, and unlike liberal icons such as Roosevelt or Johnson or Obama, he presided over an economic boom and became beloved by voters not normally drawn to his party. No wonder that Reagan, long before his death in 2004, attained mythical status in the conservative movement and the Republican Party.
But that myth has become a burden for the modern GOP. It has bound Reagan’s followers on the right to policies and positions that were time-specific. The old guard has become convinced that Reagan’s solutions to the problems of his time were the essence of conservatism — not simply conservative ideas appropriate for that era.
Today’s Republican Party, however, faces legions of voters and candidates who came of age politically after Reagan’s eight years in office. An entire generation recalls him vaguely as a genial, optimistic president who stood up for America in the Cold War.
The Republican Party can remain a Ronald Reagan historical society, or it can try to endure as a force in national politics. But it can’t do both. The choice matters greatly, for there is no guarantee that the GOP will retain its ability to win national elections or that conservatism has a future as a national governing philosophy.
The Republican Party may survive, but only if its politicians, activists, donors and intellectuals rethink modern conservatism and find new issues to defend and new arguments with which to defend them. The public face of the GOP can no longer be aging, ill-tempered Reaganites such as John McCain and Jim DeMint but must give way to a diverse, media-savvy generation that understands the America we actually live in.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Um, NO.
Some one needs to notify the bitch Reagan wasn’t a myth, he actually accomplished great things. If she wants to see a myth see need only remove her lips from Obama’s ass and look up.
And we all know how objective this Leftist journalist is, so her advice to the GOP is about as worthless as a bucket of warm spit.
Obama and FDR are Socialists who aren’t worthy to shine Pres. Reagan’s boots.
Thanks Jenn....we really need another party that stands for nothing.
Are you really suggesting that the GOP try to market a new brand of liberalism?
Conviction to Conservative Values is the ONLY way to establish a contrast with those promoting the path to destruction.
Did Karl Rove ghost-write this?
Rubin does a regular podcast with Mickey Kaus for the Richocet site. I find myself agreeing more with Kaus than Rubin. Rubin is a welfare state loving Neo-Con.
She’s no more ‘conservative’ than I am a friggin tutu’d ballerina [calling Mr. Rahm Emanuel, calling Rahm Emanuel...]
She looks like a man, probably not a good enough liberal writer (doesn’t swallow it hook, line and sinker), so WaPo gave her the token conservative moniker.
Screw her....[actually, somebody else can try that]
Let me guess, we need to hold up Bill Clinton as the Republican ideal. < /gag>
“The public face of the GOP can no longer be aging, ill-tempered Reaganites such as John McCain...”
LOL. Yeah, McCain was a Reagan conservative.
Hate to tell Ms. Rubin, but President Reagan was no myth. He said what he meant and meant what he said. Unlike the lying b-tid occupying the White House now.
Reagan was the last real conservative elected, and unlike Bush who squeaked by with only one electoral vote in 2000 and just barely in 2004, Reagan won 44 states in 1980 and 49 states in 1984.
Both the democrat and republican establishments want the people to forget the MASSIVE support that real conservative ideas gets. They want the game to be played on a very narrow field (red states, blue states, swing states) so they can control the results.
Reagan’s enormous victories scared them to hell then, and does still, which is why they have moved heaven and earth to ensure the nomination of worthless, moderate, go-along, get-along, establishment appoved, men (Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney).
Takes a lot of moxie coming from a bunch of people still having daily orgasms over FDR nearly seven decades after his passing.
Why am I not surprised by this? Rubin was totally and embarrassingly head-over-heels over Mitt Romney. Praised him to the skies, and dumped on anyone opposing him. Loathed Palin. Seemed entirely dismissive (if not actually antagonistic) towards the grassroots/tea-party.
Her GOP-E ilk always hated Reagan.
Reagan will be around a lot longer than the Post.
..we walked through his ranch house, saw where he slept and we stood weeping at his grave site at the library. He was a mortal—a mortal who did great things for America and the world...
The Rats and RINOs still fear Reagan for his stalwart anti-socialist polices.
The GOPe have been working hard behind the scenes to "kill off the Reagan myth" since "W" was in the White House and now see it mostly coming from Rove - but I have to say that there was no love lost between Bush 41 and Reagan, for they fought a vicious battle over the 1980 nomination.
People now look at Geo. H W Bush as a genial old man in a wheel chair having to be helped to stand but I do remember how vigorously he fought against Ronnie for a position, like the establishment always does, simply assumed that he was the "next in line" for the 1980 nomination.
Actually, the establishment Republicans fought against Reagan in 1976, when the GOPe shut Reagan out of the nomination, handing it instead to a weak Gerald Ford, who, of course, lost to Jimmy Carter!
So to blame this gal for any original thoughts of her own, is to give her far too much credit for brain power.
Let's tear down the Washington comPOST!!!
It really is a stikin’ heap of spew, bilge, bile, and feces.
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