That the ink wasn't dry before congresscritters were interviening on behalf of both Big Donors and the illegals isn't RR fault, it simply shows he was human and could make errors. He trusted in Congressmen's "Word of Honor" and The People's watchdogging Congress.
Remember, this was when the Leftys had only just started their major penetration of the Dems -- there wasn't the trackrecord of perfidity to judge the Democrat's actions from, and there were many more honest Democrats then.
There's a huge difference between Conservative Purity (RReagan) and chasing after Socialism (the GOP today)
That you, an obviously intelligent, well-meaning, seemingly honest person twits Conservative Purity simply shows you've been propagandized.
People who complained to "Purists" told us GWB MUST be elected, and we were heels for worrying about his bipartisan-stances in TX, and his professed "Compassionate Conservatism". Are you happy with his actions anywhere but the one measly taxcut -- where he capitulated on permanancy -- and TWOT?
Look, if it is a core belief, then you don't compromise... AND the 3-legs of Conservatism are how the average person runs their life. They just don't know it.
If, instead of cursing purists, we instead insisted on it -- and taught why we'd start to win again.
I’m not cursing purists, I just think we should get as pure as possible. Sometimes, pure as possible means a Rino instead of the real deal. Sometimes we get great candidates, sometimes we get turkeys. Instead of wishing we had legendary candidates, we should simply play the hand that was dealt to us. If we get a good candidate, we get one and we run him or her.
Ideally, running a charismatic socially conservative tax cutting pro life, pro gun small, pro strong defense l libertarian would be a dream, but there’s a little thing called reality. We didn’t have a pro strong defense pro life tax cutting pro gun small l socially conservative libertarian. We had a wannabe socially liberal big spending pro choice libertine who was surprisingly pro national defense with little charisma.
Point is, getting puritan when the only thing you have is a Rino will not spread the message of conservatism, but it’ll only get us embarrassed. Half a loaf of bread is better than none.