Running on Reagan’s themes won’t be enough this time. We have a near majority of taxpayers who no longer have a stake in the game and in a general a culture of dependency. Judging by recent surveys, the electorate is incredibly uninformed and the politicians see no benefit to telling them reality, namely that this state of affairs cannot continue. Instead of reigning in our out of control deficit spending the country will likely default in the medium term. Politicians, and the public, will not be able to accept the scale of cuts required and, thankfully, huge tax increases are unlikely to be approved which is one thing the Republicans are good for - strident tax opposition at least until they incrementally cave in the name of bipartisanship.
Romney is just another in a long line of Republican ‘moderates’ who do nothing transformational but continue our long slide into debt, stagnation, and dependency.
When Reagan was running we had a more conservative electorate than the one we have now. Any other country would have modified citizenship laws to include birthright citizenship only for those who at least parent was a citizen. Instead, the majority cowered before the minority and was frightened by being called racists while the real racists were pimping affirmative action. The other minority, businesses, love unlimited immigration in order to depress American wages. The ‘stagnation’ in wages the left complains about, particularly for the least skilled, is a direct result of our immigration policies. We have had a demographic tsunami of third world socialists who are allowed to stay in the country and whose children vote. Ultimately, the illegals will join their legal children as voters when they reach critical mass and have sufficiently changed the views of society at large. It’s not far off considering all the other social garbage which has occurred. America has changed a lot in the last 30 years and not in a good way. These videos of Obama will do nothing to hurt his prospects either since ‘minority’ racism is okay, it’s standing up for ones rights in the public’s view.
If Reagan had this voter base, the tea party, the post Gingrich legislative branch to work with, all the Republican Governors, conservative females, like Palin, and Martinez of New Mexico, talk radio, Fox, conservative internet.
Reagan could be so much more conservative than he was when he was trying to create an America that would eventually lead to all of this.
Reagan had to be the planter, today, he would be harvesting crops that we cannot imagine.
I am on on the same page as you in much of what you said, but we have a conservative core today, that wasn’t there in the 1960s and 1970s, our 40 to 80 year olds today are a true conservative force, while they were liberal in that ugly past.
The bond market will supply the dose of reality that the media occults. The Fed won’t let it happen before the election. But the reckoning will come as sure as God made little green apples. Then you’ll see the inner conservative come out of even the most sedated independent.
We all know that the way we’re going is unsustainable. The electorate must be reminded, and educated on the evils of high taxes as the solution to entitlement expansion and burgeoning government debt.
It must also be educated as to the connection between Statism and the culture of death. The ObamaCare-HHS mandate is a prime example.