Posted on 02/16/2007 8:30:44 AM PST by meg88
The GOP Should Dump Its Litmus Test By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | February 16, 2007
The philosopher Diogenes is said to have wandered around ancient Greece holding a lantern and seeking to find an honest man.
My fellow Republicans, sans lanterns, are now wandering around the political landscape seeking to find the perfect Republican presidential candidate.
I dont know if Diogenes ever found that honest man, but I do know that those Republicans are never going to find the perfect candidate, simply because he does not exist.
Some Republicans insist that the only perfect candidate would be a clone of my Dad, Ronald Reagan. Aside from the fact that there is no such thing, its important to recognize that Ronald Reagan, as he often admitted, was anything but perfect.
One of the criticisms about former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney focuses on his record concerning the abortion issue. We are told by the modern day Diogenes clones that he cant be trusted to fight abortion because he once, more or less, supported a womans right to butcher her baby.
It may come as a surprise to these purists, but Ronald Reagan once supported abortion too. Yet nobody ever questioned his strong pro-life credentials after his conversion to Republicanism. They accepted his sincerity. Why cant they accept Mitt Romneys?
Romneys record shows he should be totally acceptable to all conservatives, yet because of one dubious question concerning the validity of his conversion to the pro-life side, he is deemed unsuitable to carry the conservative banner.
The same is true of Rudy Giuliani. On every major issue, he is a solidly conservative and extraordinarily adept executive, but because he backs abortion and some form of gun control, Americas mayor -- the hero of 9/11 and the man who did the impossible by cleaning up New York -- is all but ruled out as a 2008 candidate.
Not one of the major candidates is free of some real or imagined flaw that offends some conservatives.
This is madness, and if it does not stop, the GOP is going to lose the presidential election in 2008. In the search for the perfect candidate we are going to end up with an imperfect candidate. Keep in mind the truism that agreement with someone on most issues and disagreement on others is seen as normal, but should you agree with someone on every single issue imaginable well to put it plainly, psychologists say youre nuts.
I recently got a letter from a conservative Christian organization that asked me if the current GOP candidates are the best the Republican Party has to offer.
Is it possible that GOP conservative ranks are this thin? the letter writer asked. Has the GOP nothing better to offer? Should not pro-family pro-life voters also want a low taxes and limited government candidate before they vigorously support him? Increased taxes and expanded government hurts everyone. Was Ronald Wilson Reagan an anomaly and did he represent the values of his party?
These GOP candidates, the letter instructed me, are little better than Bob Dole, Gerald Ford, or [George] H.W. Bush. Did anyone notice they all lost?
This makes me wonder if anybody can stand up to the litmus test these people are applying to candidates.
Ronald Reagan had one litmus test he applied to candidates. Were they Republicans? If they were he backed them all the way. He would let the party choose the candidate and he would support and vote for the candidate. He didnt go sniffing around trying to find some flaw in their character or their past. Once nominated, they were his choice.
And nobody was more candid in admitting that he was anything but perfect than my Dad. He knew that like all men, he had his flaws and he spent a lifetime combating them. Had todays GOP litmus test been seriously applied to him, he could not have passed the test.
The Democrats dont have litmus tests. If the nominee is a Democrat, they support their candidate all the way, and if they lose it isnt because they didnt fight like demons for their man or woman.
If we want to win in 2008, Republicans had better wake up, and quit talking Ronald Reagan and start being like Ronald Reagan.
I think "Dutch" would agree whole heartedly with his son.
I think it has been conclusively shown that taking guns away from legal permit holders does nothing to halt crime - instead, it tends to increase it since criminals are less likely to face an armed target.
NYC was completely out of control - I challenge you to identify one single law abiding gun owner in NYC whose arms were "taken away"..
One's a freeper. Pinging Pharmboy.
Rudy did.
Whatever you say-you seem to know it all.
Rudy started a campaign to get legal carry permits off the street. I know--I had a legal carry for 19 years in NYC but could not renew under Rudy's watch.
27 posted on 02/14/2007 8:35:45 AM MST by Pharmboy
Forgot to PING you.... post #365.
.....I'm 49, a Californian like Reagan, worked on his campaign for 80 and my folks are from Mich where most of my relatives are from.....so just because I'm from Calif does not make me a liberal or even moderate....I don't agree with Rudy on many things....but I admire his positive attributes....and I consider him probably a better leader on the WOT then anyone besides maybe Duncan Hunter....
Try to take them away?
Not good enough - plain and simple - no legal gun owner had guns taken away. NONE
Illegal gun owners - you bet - plenty - and thank goodness.
Your floating rubbish.
Yes. A President can't govern without a base and loyalty in his Congressional party. Rudy is no fool and understands that.
Attempting to deal with you in a rational manner is a waste of time. You're nothing but a fifth columnist disruptor who wants to divide the base as he embarrasses the name of Ronald Reagan. People need to be advised of the disruptors, but the disruptors deserve no respect.
I reject that analysis for the primaries. Reagan himself had bruising primaries and his CONSERVATISM won out.
I WILL find and vote for a real conservative in the primaries.
It's that simple.
In the general, I'll vote for anyone except McCain. If he's the nominee, I'll write in the same guy I vote for in the primaries.
Once again - freeper Pharmboy had legal carry permits for 19 years. And had them taken away by Rudy. Another poster has also stated that long guns were taken away as well.
You can deny the facts all you want. But that does nothing for your position that Rudy never took guns away from legal owners. He did.
Rudy is conservative with the exception of one issue? Who is Michael trying to fool? Rudy has more in common with Bill Clinton than his father. Rudy is pro-aborton, pro-homosexual agenda, pro-gun control and pro-man-made global warming. There is also reason to believe he isn't a fiscal conservative based on the way his admistrattion spent money in his second term in office in New York.
It's wonder conservativism is in such bad shape when conservative talk show hosts are proposing voting for RINOs for office.
Fox News just took a poll regarding Clinton, Obama, Edwards on the Democrat side and McCain, Giuliani and Gingrich on the GOP side. Of the three Republicans, Rudy had the fewest respondents saying they definitely would not vote for him. There was no comparison between him and Newt, who was viewed that negatively by almost twice as many people.
http://politicalarithmetik.blogspot.com/
I'd be more inclined to to vote for Newt, because he believes conservative values are worth fighting for. He isn't afraid to pick a fight with the left either.
However, as many Republicans believe Rudy is pro-life as realize Rudy is pro-choice. When pubbies learn of his views on abortion, 20 percent say they could never support him and 25 percent have serious misgivings.
Rudy's positives will only hold up until his liberal past catches up with him.
Psychobabble.
Ford was considered a moderate Republican by some, a liberal by others. But Ford was NEVER called a conservative. I know, I was around. I campaigned for Reagan versus Ford in 1976. Believe it, Ford was a pro-choice, Rockefeller Republican. Not as liberal as Rudy. The elite media of the day always said, Ford was a conservative. Nobody else.
Rudy was born a liberal and he will die a liberal. Everything in between is all liberalism.
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