Posted on 02/26/2015 7:08:12 AM PST by Clint N. Suhks
When conservatives gather at National Harbor on Thursday for their annual confab, there will be homages to Ronald Reagan everywhere. He’ll be mentioned in speeches, he’ll show up as a life-size cardboard cutout, and he’ll be on posters and buttons. The event’s big dinner is in his name.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Reagan is king. And the many Republicans vying to be president will work feverishly to align with him. But do they?
For the Loop, Crowdpac, a group that mines campaign and political data and assigns ideological scores, compared Reagan during his time in office with the many GOP presidential hopefuls speaking at CPAC over the four-day conference, to see who might be most like the Gipper.
Crowdpac analyzes donations to and from politicians during their campaigns and their time in office. For those in Congress, it also takes into account voting records. Crowdpac’s algorithm uses those variables to measure politicians against one another — it’s called cluster analysis.
As a presidential candidate, Reagan was considered the most conservative in the field. But that would not be true among today’s politicians.
One caveat to the data: When Reagan ran for president in 1980 and 1984, political giving was much different than it is today. There were no super PACs. There wasn’t nearly as much money. So there’s simply more data to analyze today.
Still, the above graph is an interesting way to illustrate where Reagan would fall on the 2015 political spectrum.
If CPAC-goers are looking for a Reagan replica, they may want to listen closely to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Texas governor Rick Perry, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and, at least by this analysis, Ben Carson.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Umm... that would have disqualified Reagan in 1980.
Isn’t Paul a LIBertarian? He does not belong on a chart of conservatives. This piece is nothing more than libertarian propaganda. Paul will be a spoiler in the primaries, and it’s pieces like this, trying to equate apples to oranges, that set the foundation for him and the uniparty to be successful in pulling votes away from Cruz or Walker.
I thought Jindal was pretty darn conservative... so I don’t get the graphic from the article.
Your sentiment isn’t wrong but this can’t be a general rule, sure, Reagan ran in fact in ‘68, ‘76 and then ‘80. I don’t mind Rick Perry at all, not my first choice though, probably my 2nd or 3rd choice though.
I agree, that graphic is silly in my estimation. As I said, I was under the impression Governor Jindal, whilst not as popular as some of these others, is indeed very conservative.
And Ben Carson, yes, he is conservative but unless someone is really in the trenches with their record on the line, hard to say what his stances on all of the issues are.
For instance, Rand Paul probably is more fiscally conservative than Reagan (and most likely 2016 candidates), but as a libertarian, he's probably more "liberal" in issues like drug law, legislation on social issues, etc. Conversely, Santorum and Huckabee may as well be moderate blue-dog Democrats on fiscal issues, but they're well to the right of Reagan on social issues like abortion, etc.
There's also the issue of foreign policy. Interventionism vs. Anti-Interventionism is not a Left/Right issue at all, since there are both liberal interventionists and conservative interventionists, just as there are both left-wing Pacifists and right-wing "Isolationists." Reagan was a foreign policy "realist", somewhere between knee-jerk interventionists who want to police the world and the isolationist right.
what trash!
A democrat who knew he couldn't get elected to statewide office in Texas without camouflaging his true nature.
Commie Red.
Maybe Rick couldn't have been elected but Perry became a Republican before Democrat Ann Richards became Governor, statewide office.
One thing is certain: the Washington comPost can’t tell us.
Reagan was a true hard core conservative, I would love to hear his updated political messaging and political focus for 2016.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.