“When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it.
“Compromise” was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything.
“I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: ‘I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.’
“If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.” - Ronald Reagan
Between your quote and this one, I’d think more conservatives would “get it”. You work to move the party, and it may take 2 or 3 election cycles, but it will move right. You have to be involved, not sit out if you don’t get your way... Reagan was right.
Well said! Thanks.
Excellent post!
The interesting fact is that he never compromised his principles--he got others to compromise theirs.
There is a heck of a difference and this is the way to advance an agenda.