40%??
The bloody-minded Puritans on this thread find a 96% ACU rating to be too far Left for them.
Reagan selected two "RINOS" (I HATE that term) as his VP candidates - Schweicker and Bush. BOTH were pro-abortion at the time. BOTH were considered liberal Republicans.
Reagan also nominated O'Connor.
So I guess Ronald Reagan was an unprincipled closet RINO who sold out the Conservative movement by supporting all of these RINOS / sarcasm off.
Then we have the nuts who think Dubya is only "slightly better" than Kerry on defense. Right, and Britney Spears is only slightly better looking than Helen Thomas.
My favorite is the desire for a two-party system that contains the Republican Party and the Constitutional Party. It must be nice living on Fantasy Island. The Constitution Party has how many members in Congress? 100? 50? 10? 5? 1? um --- ZERO -- which is exactly how much relevance they have in 2004.
It's Dubya v. Kerry. Anyone calling themselves a Conservative who does not support Dubya this year is IMHO deserting the field in the face of the enemy, a traitor to the Conservative movement, spitting on the memory of Ronald Reagan, willing to risk the national security of our country by handing it over to Lurch and the loony Left, and a CINO to boot.
Ronald Reagan was above all else a very shrewd and practical politician. He denounced those on the Right who were so concerned about ideological purity that they didn't even get half a loaf. If Kerry gets in, not only won't we get half a loaf; we'll lose loaves we already own.
I've seen many 'moderates' take this pearl of wisdom from Reagan out of context to defend the GOP, who would rather switch than fight lately.
Actually he was describing his tactics when the crafting legislation.
Reagan certainly never surrendered his principles before the battle was even joined, a favorite tactic of 'practical' republicans.