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 don’t 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, it’s 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 can’t be trusted to fight abortion because he once, more or less, supported a woman’s 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 can’t they accept Mitt Romney’s?
Romney’s 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, America’s 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 you’re 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 didn’t 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 today’s GOP litmus test been seriously applied to him, he could not have passed the test.
The Democrats don’t have litmus tests. If the nominee is a Democrat, they support their candidate all the way, and if they lose it isn’t because they didn’t 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.
Whom nobody outside the base has heard of.
He ran against a guy that was not elected by the people. And, once he lost in the primaries he did his part to get Ford back in office.
LOL
You zinged me, and didn't ping me.
No threat, just a fact.
You got a problem with that, take it upstairs.
And so it starts. Michael Reagan should hang his head in shame. I never would have suspected he'd tuck tail and run in the face of adversity. Buck it up Reagan!
Welcome to Free Republic. :-)
Ronnie? The one who will be the last to know that Ronald Reagan Jr. is gay?
Let me explain to you why I will never vote for Rudy Giuliani. We are both Catholic however one of us has been a supporter of abortion on demand which is considered a grave and evil sin by the Catholic Church, that would be Rudy. Of course he is free to hold whatever views he wants but the hypocrisy involved in walking into the Church and receiving Holy Communion while holding those views is, imo, disqaulaifying behavior for a candidate for POTUS.
For me to vote for Rudy I would become the same hypocrite that Rudy is since I march in Dc every year clamoring for the Bishops to rebuke and excommunicate pro abortion Catholics holding public office.
Since I have to look in the mirror in the mornings when I shave, I prefer not to have a hypcrite staring back at me watching and thus voting for Rudy is a bridge too far so to speak.
Or were there a PRESIDENT KEYES and a PRESIDENT PAT BUCHANAN and I slept through those years?
Rimshot!
Thanks, my sister lurks here all the time, said if you wanna get in on the firweworks check it out. We both grew up together in Brooklyn, so the Rudy thing is interesting, to say the least!
But the Democrats do have litmus tests for their candidates.
They must be pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda, anti-second amendment, anti family values, anti-America, pro-enemies of America and thousands more.
"We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of otheres.....there is no cause more important!
And so should quite a few FReepers too.
RINOs don't stay home.
RINOs demand we nominate RINOs THEN the go and vote for the Democrat anyways.
"H.R. 1022: To reauthorize the assault weapons ban, and for other purposes"
If we throw our weight behind Obama, that might happen. Or maybe we can start a Draft Warner movement. He could do it too.
Honest FReepers don't need a fifth columnist disruptor telling them to be ashamed.
I am not a RINO. Not even close. I am, however, not interested in wearing a burqua.
"Conservatives have graciously put up with GHWB, Bob Dole, and now W"
As have I...My point is there are some people here who said that they will not put up with the Republican nominee if he's not as conservative as they like. I like Reagan's comments in his book about batting average. Everyone forgets that Newt Gingrich's much reviled Contract with America had a .700 batting average when Bill Clinton was president.
BTW the threat of Islamic terrorism was the # 1 issue on my mind when I voted for Dole in 1996 and Bush in 2000.
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.