Oh, please. If you consider mentioning that Reagan signed an amnesty bill trashing him, then you’ll just be “forced” to ban me. Ditto with mentioning that Reagan used to be a Democrat and signed what at the time was the most liberal abortion legislation in the nation.
Reagan signing amnesty does not make it conservative, nor is it a valid defense of Rudy. If anything, that you would try to use it in Rudy’s defense of illegal alien sanctuary is an indictment of you and Rudy. There is no excuse or defense whatsoever of sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. Rudy Giuliani is unfit for office on these grounds and many others.
The illegal alien problem was no where near as bad under Reagan. Granted, he made the wrong move and the problem has gotten much worse.
BTW I love what Jim has done with the site - brush away the cobwebs, throw open those windows & let in the light!
To begin with, lemme state that, as things stand, I'll be reasonably content with any of the potential nominees except for the dimwit nutjob McCain. And, I certainly think Rudy supporters should be given the opportunity to argue their case on FR. I even think McCain supporters, no matter how ignorant they must be, should have full opportunity to argue whatever ridiculous nonsense they might come up with.
But that being said, I take issue with both points you raise about Reagan.
First, I remember the mid-80s quite well, and there's no question in my mind at least that the perception of illegal migrants and their role in America was very different than it is today. More importantly, Reagan did not have the luxury of hindsight that we have: He could not know that the enforcement mechanisms in the bill he signed would be ignored by future administrations (i.e., Clinton and, even more so, GWB). Finally, Reagan had to compromise across the aisle in order to get anything done. It seemed rather clear to me that the bill he signed into law was diluted from what Reagan would've enacted if he were a dictator.
It's misleading to judge Reagan policies by the same yardstick that one might judge GWB, for instance, when the latter had a GOP House and Senate to work with for most of his term.
As for abortion, this is what Reagan himself wrote on abortion in 1983: Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.
The fact of the matter is that Reagan had a mea culpa, and the Reagan of the 1950s was hardly the same Reagan that won the presidency in 1980. Strom Thurmond and Phil Gramm had once been Democrats as well, but no one confused them for being liberals. By contrast, Rudy has given no indication that his position has shifted on the topic of abortion. Aside from some trivial semantics, his position is unreservedly the same as it's always been.
And, as for me, I'm reserving judgement on Rudy until I have a clear sense of his policy on illegals.
“Ditto with mentioning that Reagan used to be a Democrat and signed what at the time was the most liberal abortion legislation in the nation.”
Reagan was a Roosevelt Democrat, meaning back in history he actually voted for Roosevelt, becoming a Republican in 1962, which puts him as a Republican since before the “60s” as we know them.
As the Governor of California in 1968 at the height of the sixties he signed the abortion bill sent to him, a decision that he quickly regretted. This was years before Roe vs Wade and before the great abortion wars that followed that 1973 decision, to continually use that to justify pro abortion activities by politicians during those intense abortion battles of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the first decade of the 21st century is misleading and besmirches Reagan’s reputation by throwing him into the current (or any) pro abortion crowd, it would be more honest to make your argument without using President Reagan’s name, unless of course you use it in a way that accurately supports his beliefs.