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For that he’s going to have to experience a visit from the Ghost of Reagan Past

But who is truly going to take John McCain on a tour of “Real Conservatism for Always on All of the Issues”?

For that he’s going to have to experience a visit from the Ghost of Reagan Past

Who or what in America has ever followed a particular ideological line Always on All of the Issues?

The Ghost of Reagan Fairy Tales, maybe, but certainly not the Ghost of Reagan Past.

If the 1977-era Ronald Reagan were alive and running for office today, he would be crucified by those who gleefully post about "McAmnesty" every time John McCain's named is mentioned on FR.

In one of his radio addresses, in November 1977, he (Reagan) wondered about what he called "the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion, or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do? One thing is certain in this hungry world: No regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters." ....... In 1980, according to the book "Reagan: His Life in Letters" (page 511), the then-Presidential candidate wrote to one supporter that "I believe we must resolve the problem at our southern border with full regard to the problems and needs of Mexico. I have suggested legalizing the entry of Mexican labor into this country on much the same basis you proposed, although I have not put it into the sense of restoring the bracero program." ....... During the same campaign, circa December 1979, the Gipper responded to criticism from conservative columnist Holmes Alexander with the following: "Please believe me when I tell you the idea of a North American accord has been mine for many, many years. I have seen presidents, both Democrat and Republican, approach our neighbors with pre-concocted plans in which their only input is to vote 'yes.' "Some months before I declared, I asked for a meeting and crossed the border to meet with the president of Mexico. I did not go with a plan. I went, as I said in my announcement address, to ask him his ideas -- how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence." ..... in November 1986 Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which included more money for border police and employer sanctions. ... But even as he signed that bill, he also insisted on a provision for legalizing immigrants already in the U.S. -- that is, he supported "amnesty." ... In his signing statement, Reagan declared that "We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans."