The Gipper didn't campaign as a "compassionate conservative" or to make America a "kinder, gentler nation" or spout nonsense like "a thousand points of light." And when he said "no new taxes," he meant it (as opposed to his "read my lips" successor). .....even while he was fighting with a Democrat majority in both Houses, vetoing every piece of big gov't legislation they threw his way.
The GOP has been yellow-bellied for way too long now.
Hello? were you alive in the 1980's?
"Its morning in America" or "the shining city" are all Ronald Reagan soundbites.
Heh heh. Maybe you should read up on the history of the 1980s. Reagan never said he would vote for "no new taxes", though he did advocate for tax cuts. Reagan did get a big tax cut through Congress in 1981, then turned around and signed a huge tax increase in 1982. The 1986 Tax Reform Act simplified taxation quite a bit, and although it was meant to be revenue neutral, it did result in tax increases for people taxing deductions for credit card interest and auto loans, etc.
As far as vetoing big-government legislation goes, why did Reagan sign the bill that "saved" (i.e. delayed reckoning for 25 more years) Social Security and gave us all a 13% flat tax taken straight from our paychecks? And the war on drugs was a big-government program, too.
This said, he accomplished great things, among them defeating communism and bringing the US economy back temporarily from the collectivist brink, but the inertia of ever-expanding government proved too powerful even for Reagan to stop. Reagan never advocated, as Goldwater did, making Social Security voluntary or selling off the TVA. As recently as 1996, the GOP platform asserted that the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration should be abolished- but not any more. Bush I advocated abolishing the federal flood insurance program - could any mainstream politician ever advocate for this again? And the fight against PBS went down in flames when Big Bird testified before Congress during Bill Clinton's successful takedown of Newt Gingrich's program of government downsizing.
I do think conservatives are on "my side"- even if I disagree on some issues. Though, we, together, are just fighting rear guard action- an ultimately futile though worthy fight against the demagogue statists and radical levelers. Though I bitterly resist saying it, we will lose in the end, count on it.