Posted on 01/23/2015 6:08:23 AM PST by xzins
This week marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of the “massacre of the Reaganites” by newly elected President George H.W. Bush that effectively ended the prospect of institutionalizing Reaganism as the governing principle of the Republican Party and America.
We call it the “massacre of the Reaganites” because, in a well-thought-out and carefully crafted purge, on Inauguration Day 1989 practically every conservative who remained in government at the end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, and certainly any conservative of any political consequence, was fired or forced to resign from their post in the federal government.
Even those who had worked tirelessly to elect George H.W. Bush President in the expectation that a Bush presidency would be effectively the “third term of Ronald Reagan” were dismissed.
Within hours of Bush’s inauguration establishment Republicans, such as James Baker III, who had opposed many of Reagan’s initiatives from within the administration, were promoted. But throughout the government Reagan’s conservative appointees, many of whom were loyal Republicans who had supported Bush, were forced to resign, were stripped of their duties, or were summarily fired by a new administration that wanted no part of the relatively few movement conservatives left in the government on the day Ronald Reagan departed Washington for California.
The few that were left were relegated to the dim reaches of various federal office building and given a few months to find another job or left on the payroll, but given no responsibilities in the new administration. Their in-boxes filled with only magazines and with nothing substantive to do they soon left.
While Bush partisans argued that the new president was justified in putting his own people in place, the 1989 “Inauguration Day Massacre” firings were more akin to political executions; lists of those to be “executed” were drawn up, and they were fired before sundown of the first day of the new Bush administration in a well-planned agenda to replace conservatives (be they Bush supporters or not) with establishment Republicans.
While most conservative critiques of George H.W. Bush tend to focus on “Read my lips,” and Bush’s abandonment of his pledge not to raise taxes, the result of the “Inauguration Day Massacre” firings were with no conservatives left to say “hey wait a minute,” Bush quickly walked away from conservative principles on a long list of policies and decisions.
• Bush reversed himself and imposed a temporary ban on semiautomatic rifles—so-called assault weapons—after first opposing the idea.
• He signed and advocated the Americans with Disabilities Act, creating a whole new realm of litigation nightmares for businesses large and small.
• He bailed out the troubled savings and loans banks.
• He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1990, making it easier for employees to sue employers.
• He bought into global warming by signing the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• He created a “no net loss of wetlands” policy out of whole cloth, with little legislative authority, outraging farmers and landowners across the country.
• And, in what was perhaps his most lasting and damaging betrayal of conservatives, he appointed an obscure state judge, David Souter of New Hampshire, to the Supreme Court.
The “massacre of the Reaganites” should serve as a caution to conservatives who look at Jeb Bush and listen to his “right to rise” rhetoric and think “he sounds pretty good, how bad could a third Bush administration be?” During Reagan’s presidency conservatives frequently said, “Personnel is policy,” and Bush’s Inauguration Day massacre was a sure sign that he intended to abandon Reagan’s policies, and his principles.
Despite all of Bush’s rhetoric about “the transformative power of conservative ideas,” Jeb Bush is the “great white hope” of the Republican establishment.
No one else in America, save Hillary Clinton, starts the 2016 political season with a larger Rolodex of Washington insider supporters than does Jeb Bush. In addition to supporting all of their major policy goals from Common Core to amnesty for illegal aliens, a Bush candidacy will send millions of dollars in consulting business and lucrative lobbying contracts to a small, but powerful, coterie of Bush family supporters and acolytes.
We limited government constitutional conservatives must recognize up front that a successful Jeb Bush campaign would ensure that the Republican establishment stays in power for at least another decade, and it would also ensure that, no matter if Jeb or the Democrat wins, Big Government will continue to get bigger.
Per those who are in the Bohemian Grove circle, Reagan was told if he wants to become president that he had to select GH Bush as his VP.
...yes, and from one of the RR insider books, the point was made that it was a threat that Reagan would never see the inside of the Oval Office unless he put HW on the ticket, and the campaign without HW would include every juicy past indiscretion of Ron and Nancy... Rockefeller GOPe/OneWorlders play for keeps.
And I don’t think GW was ever “conservative” except in the compassionate conservative sense... he just played one at the insistence of GOPe handlers...
ymmv
So the voting going on after midnight, and Reagan narrowly missing the nomination by 1070 to 1187, was all theatrics that Reagan and thousands of republicans were all participating in as part of a conspiracy?
So are you saying that conservatives appreciated the major run up of the national debt engineered by President Reagan?
The betrayals are legion.
We appreciated the demise of the Soviets and the booming economy, and understood the run up in the national debt engineered by the Democrats who controlled Congress.
Absolutely correct Spacebar. It was Reagan’s biggest mistake to succumb to “picking” GHW Bush as running mate and Veep.It was JFK’s biggest mistake likewise to “pick” LBJ.It’s well know that both these good men, Reagan and JFK , had no high regard for their running mates, who succeeded both men and changed American political life into something we still have to live with.
HW Bush was so awful that Clinton was able to apply term limits to him.
If Jeb runs, I will actually vote for Democrat. NO matter what he says, what he does, or what anyone thinks. Its the only way to teach them GOP a lesson.
And I wont feel the least bit bad. Im actually very pleased that McCain did not become president and im now horrified that I ever voted for the loon.
Romney? Why have a white Obama? Other than the bunting and flag waving, his policies are nearly identical on Gun Control, Immigration, One world, health care, banking, etc.
Fixed it.
PING!
But then they did not appreciate Bush Sr.s efforts to pay for the deficit. Explains why Bush Jr. opted for unpaid wars which we will be paying for over many years.
Thanks for the post. Didn’t remember this. I probably wasn’t paying too much attention to politics at the time.
Good points.
Think of all the big Bush folks who have left FR
One attractive gal comes to mind
This is the first I’ve heard of it, but I’m not surprised. The GOPe also continued a Reaganite purge of elected officials for the next 20 years. It took longer to get rid of them than appointees.
Now they simply tell the rank and file to sit down and shut up.
That’s my understanding as well. Somehow things have changed since then, as now it seems the candidate can pretty much hand select their running mate. But not back then.
And this is exactly why I will never vote for another GOPe. I learned with Bush I, then Bush II. I will not be snuckered by Bush III.
I didn’t vote in 1988. I could not bring myself to vote for HW. He is the one mistake Reagan made. And Reagan spoke for him at the convention. I’ve always wondered WHY Reagan picked him for veep.
I voted for Jorge once. I will not vote for Jeb. If it takes the democrats destroying America quickly instead of the republicans doing it slowly, I’m all for it if it kills the Rockefeller republicans with it.
Remember HW’s VOODOO ECONOMICS? When he was asked about it after being selected veep he said “I have evolved.”
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