Like I said,too many of you are making Reagan into a saint.

He was a great president, but he had lots of failures and lots of opposition too. The one thing Reagan had that we do not have from most of the current crop of candidates was his ability to make the Republican party inclusive. Too many pseudo conservatives think that people in the Republican party all must have the exact same views on fiscal policy, on abortion, on certain social issues.

Reagan was much too smart for that. He knew that politics was the art of getting things done. He believed in the American people, not some set of guidelines sent down by some folks in talk radio et al. And this is why he was able to get us out of the complete mess that was given to us by the worst president of the 20th century and truly an evil man, Jimmy Carter. Reagan told us to win wars, to cut the burden of government on the people, and to embrace open markets. He also made sure that he did not require certain social views in order to be part of the team, and yes, he compromised where it was required to get something done.

People who listen to the talking heads on radio that say that we can only be a conservative if we agree with each and every bit of their dogma are certainly not Reaganites and they are putting us in the position of giving the country to Hillary and her crowd of nitwits.

The folks that talk about protecting conservatism are doing the exact opposite of of Reaganism. He believed in protecting the American people, not some exclusive dogma

georgealbert on January 19, 2008 at 4:53 PM

I listen to Rush frequently, he is terrific, but he is not always right, and even Rush is sometimes forgetting how Reagan worked as a politician rather than a philospher. The other day he said that someone cannot be a conservative unless he is not a down the line right to life guy; Reagan would never have said that, in fact in the Repub platform discussions of 1976 and 1980 he said just the oppoosite.

And I agree with partisanship, heck, almost everyone is partisan and it is a good thing because I believe in the battle of ideas, that is why I became a Republican. But what is happening now is the phony argument that says to be a conservative Republican you have to 1.) never have been divorced (cancels Reagan out); 2.) must be dogmatically right to life vs. having positions that will actually reduce the number of abortions in the country; 3.) Support economic policies that only work in perfect markets (e.g. Dubai Ports deal that would have us doing unnecessary business with a government that is supporting terrorists and terrorism against us).

When conservatives become dogmatic they are acting in a way that is antithetical to the basic conservative philosphy that says, keep government out of our lives as much as possible, strongly defend our liberty and freedom by taking pre-emptive action when necessary, and by supporting social policies that are supportive of the family and self-reliance with the maximum amount of liberty.

georgealbert on January 19, 2008 at 8:24 PM