Posted on 03/11/2007 12:39:02 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Republicans should not despair, even though the Grand Old Party is down after the last national elections.
“Politics is a cyclical business,” said John Fund, a columnist with the Wall Street Journal and a television commentator. Saturday’s speech at the Cochise County Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner was a homecoming event for Fund. His father was stationed on Fort Huachuca, and although born in Tucson, he lived his first six months in Fry.
And the 47-year-old writer has a brother who served for three decades as a Tucson police officer.
Therefore, Arizona and Cochise County are not strange to him, Fund told more than 150 people at the event.
With some party members depressed about the fall national elections in which the party lost control of both chambers in Congress, Fund said it is time to remind Republicans there is a need for optimism.
And if there ever was a party leader who exuded optimism, it was Ronald Reagan, he said.
Saying Reagan came to the Republican Party late in life — “He was a Democrat until his 50s” — Fund remarked that the two-term GOP president originally called himself a liberal. But Reagan always said he did not leave the Democratic Party, but the organization left him.
As the former actor climbed his way up the GOP political ladder, there were ups and downs on the rungs as Republicans gained and lost power.
Supporting then former Vice President Richard Nixon for California governor, Reagan saw his candidate defeated in 1962. In 1964, he backed another losing candidate for president, Arizona U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater.
But during that election Reagan almost changed the direction of the election with a national speech slightly more than a week before the election that raised $10 million “in today’s money” for Goldwater, Fund said.
If there had been more time before the election, Goldwater’s defeat — 44 states won by Democrat Lyndon Johnson to Goldwater’s six states — might have not been as bad, Fund said.
Even with the defeats, Reagan knew the Republicans were the real party of the people, which led him to continue on his political track, even as other disasters hit the GOP, Fund said. Reagan knew the American people would want Republicans in national power because, as he said, “liberals will always be liberals.”
He decided to run for governor of California, beating Democrat Pat Brown.
It was a placing maneuver to run for president after Nixon completed two terms in the White House, which did not happen because of Watergate causing Nixon to resign in disgrace during his second term, he said.
Patience is part of political cycles, and Reagan’s eventual winning of the White House and his policies brining economic growth created good will for Republicans, Fund said.
Yes, there were mistakes, but the decisions made by Republican-controlled Congress and administrations has led to economic growth for 96 percent of the 300 months since 1982, Fund said.
The problem is people younger than 25 years of age do not remember much when it comes to economic problems, and those younger than 40 don’t remember the long lines to obtain gasoline that happened when Democrat Jimmy Carter was president.
Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. Bush, made a major mistake in promising no new taxes but then raised some, causing him to go from a 54 percent win his first presidential election to 37 percent loss in the 1992 election, Fund said.
And the 2006 election, with Republicans no longer controlling the House and Senate, is not the final gloom and doom, Fund said. Republicans will again have to remember Reagan’s comments about liberal Democrats because they will show their true colors in the 2008 national elections.
Fund said a triumvirate of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid faces the country — Clinton as president, Pelosi remaining as Speaker of the House and Reid as the Senate’s majority leader.
That will happen if Republicans do not work to defeat Clinton and take back both congressional chambers, Fund said.
Saying Pelosi is a gracious and charming woman, Fund added her facial expression is what one sees from a deer in the headlights of car.
As for Reid, “He looks like a mortician,” he said.
Republicans have to prepare for the next election and to stop wringing their hands over the last one, Fund said.
“You took a shellacking (in 2006). But brighter days will come, even if it’s in two years,” he said.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
"Republicans have to prepare for the next election and to stop wringing their hands over the last one, Fund said."
That is true. They also need to learn from their mistakes without dwelling on them (Republican ineptitude contributed more to the outcome than the Democrats' strength), and start putting together a positive agenda.
“Politics is a cyclical business,”
--
'Business' has not been so good lately for some.. and they only have themselves to blame.
Hopefully, the base will be energized, by both the candidates and the messages.
Being a minority party sucks tho some may argue the opposite. You see how well the dems did being one, and how bad they are as a majority.
I have always preferred political "pendulum".
It is always swinging, and we struggle for hang time on our side and to minimize it when it swings to the left.
And it is no metronome that is for sure. We can influence it.
Fund is a great commentator. He also is good at bringing together the social and economic conservatives, something awfully necessary now!
bttt
What I think is that GOP collusion on McCain-Feingold, runaway spending and total neglect of the border has doomed them in 2008.
Voters sent them a clear message in 2006. It fell on deaf ears.
Sorta like the FR Ostrich Brigade.
Preparation for that is what should happen.. It isn't happening...
Americas women WANT a socialist President and WILL HAVE ONE...
No conservative will be elected.. even NEWT..
In all likelyhood, we are entering a 20 to 30 year period of Democrat/liberal ascendancy in American politics. That probably means a Democrat Congress for a while, as well as a liberal president elected in 08. Notice I said "liberal" president. Even now, we can see that the Republican Party is all set to nominate a liberal big city mayor for president. Whether it's Hillary that wins or Rudy, we'll still be getting a liberal who will take this country in a much different direction than a Reagan or a Goldwater would. I don't mean to sound fatalistic, nothing is written in stone, after all. But history does seem to predictably repeat.
If she does, she'll be a 1 term president (if the nation survives).
I wonder, if she knew beforehand that she'd be a 1 term president and end up her term in disgrace, would she still want to be president anyway?
Depends on how bad she messes up the economy..
Any doubts? Dems have no clue how economics work.
They have right along. It was the GOP which muddled things because it was not adhering to Reagan's small government, pro-defense philosophy. And the problem starts in the White House where there is a Big Government, Open Border Lobbyist who worships at the shrine of Political Correctness...and bipartisanness.
Note...the words "liberal democrat" haven't ever passed the lips of GWB that I have noticed since 2000.
Doesn't have to happen. We are the Base. We run the Caucusses. We pick the delegates. We vote in the straw polls. We don't have to be steam-rolled by the Rockefeller wing and their tame MSM.
We can, and should, pick a solid guy, such as Duncan Hunter.
Duncan Hunter will need money to get his message out.
I hope everyone will forget contributing to the RNC, & give directly to a CONSERVATIVE candidate.
The RNC just cares about winning, imo.
Reagan policies worked just fine and will work whenever they are implemented.
Strong defense. Smaller government at home. Encourage industry.
Yes, he made some mistakes, the 1986 amnesty stands out, but overall he had it right.
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.