Posted on 09/01/2015 10:11:25 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
The Washington Post’s token “conservative” columnist, Jennifer Rubin, was adamant.
Writing at the Washington Post in early 2013, Rubin demanded that the Republican Party, if they wish to remain viable, embrace the new realities of modern conservatism, including “celebrity candidates” in a piece titled”
Wrote Rubin, among other things:
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. …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. Only then can the essence of conservatism — the promotion of personal liberty — survive, and the GOP along with it.
And then? Wait for it…because then Jennifer Rubin suggested this:
Conservatives have come to deplore the role of personality in politics, scoffing at celebrity candidates. This is deeply misguided. …A successful political party must not just acknowledge new realities but adjust to them, even embrace them.
As the old saying goes, not being careful, Ms. Rubin and all those “we need to get beyond Reagan” types have now gotten exactly what they wished for.
It’s “misguided” to be “scoffing at celebrity candidates”? Weep no more. Donald Trump is a 100 on a celebrity scale of 1 to 10. “Acknowledge new realities…adjust to them…even embrace them”? Say no more. The Republican grass roots has acknowledged the “new reality” that is a GOP Establishment that effectively is supporting Obama’s Open Borders while campaigning on a vow to stop Obama’s executive amnesty. They have acknowledged the “new reality” that the GOP leadership in Washington campaigned on defunding Obamacare but refused to do it. They have adjusted to and embraced the hard reality that their leadership is engaged in a double-game, saying one thing but never carrying through, pitching to Main Street while quietly letting K Street call the shots.
Thus, having followed Rubin’s advice to a “T” (so to speak), you would expect Ms. Rubin and her likeminded to be thrilled, yes?
Wrong. Instead, she is…appalled.
Abruptly, Rubin does a 180, headlining this:
She states of the celebrity candidate she precisely demanded who appeals overwhelmingly to just what Rubin said must be appealed to – not “ill-tempered Reaganites” but rather “a diverse, media-savvy generation that understands the America we actually live in.” Now, suddenly, according to Rubin, these very same folks who in fact understand all too well “the America we actually live in” are supporting “not a bully but a crybaby.” And they have that “ugly side” thing going.
Typically, having scorned Reagan, she now misrepresents Trump. His attacks on illegal immigration are transformed by Rubin into attacks on “Mexican immigrants.” Not true, but hey.
When you demand a post-Reagan world and get it only to find out the crowd has left you behind too, suddenly Americans are the “angry right wing” “unhinged” with their favorite candidate exhibiting “immature and bizarre political thinking.”
Snaps Rubin: “Americans are not prepared to undertake mass roundups and destroy family units.” Does the name “Dwight Eisenhower” ring a bell with Rubin? You know, that angry right- wing Republican president who – as detailed here deported – initiated a program of mass deportation of illegals in June of 1954, resulting in the departure involuntarily or voluntarily of over a million in the first year of the program alone. Yes, by bus, buy train, by plane, and by ship.
All of this, as noted here cheered on repeatedly in the day by positive coverage from - yes - The New York Times. The Times was so enraged by the presence of illegals and their employment by the farmers and growers of the day that the farmers and growers were accused of “peonage” –that being a first cousin of slavery. Which is to say the use of illegals by the farmers and growers was not only an outrageous example of “ethics cast aside” in the view of the Times, it was racist to boot.
What’s really at play here in all of this “get over Reagan” business is not Jennifer Rubin. Rubin is merely a symbol of the problem that lies behind the collective numbers for Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz.
What all of this “get over Reagan”- and -“pick a celebrity” -who-is-media-savvy-and -can- energize- the-base-but-OMG-not-that-celebrity-or-that-ugly-base business is about is nothing more than Rubin giving lip service to the same-old-same-old Inside The Beltway GOP Insiderdom that is so out of touch with Outside The Beltway Republicans and conservatives it is by now almost a caricature of itself.
Just in the last day the Des Moines Register released a new poll that has Trump at 23% and Carson at 18%, with his support since January having surged by a whopping 22%. Not to mention his favorables, the numbers soaring from 27% to 61% positive.
Are these Iowans the “ugly right” as Rubin insists? Of course not. Between Trump, Carson, Fiorina and Ted Cruz the Outsiders one and all have a stunning 53% of the vote in that poll.
A week ago the New York Times actually took the time to investigate the Trump rise, reporting that Trump “has built a broad, demographically and ideologically diverse coalition”, “bridges demographic and political divides” and leads among evangelical Christians, moderates and the college-educated, less-affluent voters and “the most frequent, likely voters” - while “his appeal is greatest among those with little history of voting.”
Is there a message here? Yes, of course.
The base of the GOP has taken Jennifer Rubin’s 2013 advice to heart. They still love Reagan – they will always love Reagan. But they are moving forward. There is a new reality dawning in America. And the only people who are, irony of ironies, unwilling if not unable to “not just acknowledge new realities but adjust to them, even embrace them” – are Ms. Rubin and the entire GOP Establishment.
Sometimes you just can’t make this up.
Jeffery Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeffjlpa1
No pleasing some folks :-)
I think it’s time I purchased a subsciption ...
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.
Evolving 'rethink' to here:
pitching to Main Street while quietly letting K Street call the shots.
ill-tempered Reaganites such as John McCain
McCain if he ever was a Reaganite is way ahead of you Rubin. Johnny is the face of the GOPE.
The Times was so enraged by the presence of illegals and their employment by the farmers and growers of the day that the farmers and growers were accused of “peonage” –that being a first cousin of slavery.Nowadays, the Times wants to turn us ALL into peons.
Sign up is free ~
You’re right. If income taxes ain’t “peonage,” then what is it?
Nice article.
Except one thing. Carly Fiorina is not an outsider.
She is RNC/GOPe inside the Beltway and beyond Clinton Crony all the way.
Jennifer Rubin is conservative?
Thanks for posting that.
There are so many blogs and dogs out there, most not too good, even if they have hearts in the right places.
This was a well done article, that was noticeable. Seeing F Lee is EIC quickly tells me a log about the publication.
Conservative means, there, to not rabidly hate moderate or Liberal Republicans or non-Democrats.
Jennifer Rubin is no conservative.
Nor is George Will....who is an admitted atheist.
Suh-weet!
McCain a Reaganite? She's not just dumb. She is an evil liar with an agenda.
Rubin is such a nobody who weaves crap from real history.
]
She feigns to fall for Ronald Reagan without acknowledging RR was a longtime democrat and he was unpopular with the American electorate in 1975 and 1079 when he was running as some type of Barry Goldwater conservative cowboy.
It was not RR’s fine conservative credentials that got him elected his first term. That’s what Rubin is missing and her praise for RR is a scam because in 1975 and 1979 her ilk were tossing RR aside as a joke.
Indeed RR was caricatured as a trigger happy cowboy who would thrust the USA into endless senseless wars. It was well agreed by and large that Reagan would start WWIII with the USSR. Who on Earth would vote for such a megalomanic was the understood refrain?
It is true that RR wanted to rebuild America’s military and support its veterans JUST AS DT VOWS TO DO AND HAS A TRACK RECORD TO PROVE IT.
But it was not RR’s conservative philosophy that got him elected in 1980. Conservatism was viewed as radical, fringe, extreme especially juxtaposed with RR as a war happy maniac.
It was the Iran Hostage Crisis that got RR elected.
Just as Americans today are so fed up with the incompetence of the political establishment, Americans were precisely of the same mood over the never-ending and bumbling responses to the Iran Hostage Crisis.
And Americans were fearful, apprehensive of RR yet resigned that his polemic brand of aggressive saber rattling was maybe what was best because nothing else seemed to work as people witnessed the decline of America around the world.
But here’s where fake conservatives like Rubin come in. Once RR was firmly ensconced in the White House, the American people had a chance to view the real person, his policies and his character. And after two years of working hard to clean up the mess he inherited RR emerged under a different lens. People began to believe him and his philosophy. They could see and feel the changes in society, the economy, in national and international prestige.
All of RR’s detractors went silent or were told to shut up because they had been so wrong. Liberal leaning personas started to wax conservative and conservatism became fashionable. Longtime Dixie Democrats defected to the Republican Party because RR was becoming so enamored by their constituents.
And so Rubin is following what RR created, not what he was coming in.
When one does the thorough analysis and research, one finds Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan differ in style but not so much in substance especially in matters of essence.
Agreed. Note that the author identifies her as the “token ‘conservative’” at WaPo.
Apparently, Jennifer is one of those
“you’re free to be just like me” conservatives.
“Jennifer Rubin is conservative?”
Jenny’s a conservative slash GOP=e lick-spittle.
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