GINGRICH: That's just objectively a fact. I think if Governor (notice..it is Governor Reagan and Not President Reagan) Reagan were here today, and he were looking at where America should go, he wouldn't be saying, "Let's go back to 1980." He'd be saying, "Here are the solutions, here are the policies, here's what will carry us into the future." And I think we've watched these guys run around saying, "I'm like Reagan. I'm like Reagan." Reagan was a unique one-time personality whose great achievement in eliminating the Soviet empire was historic. Now we have a different world with a different set of problems. I don't think it can be, "Here's how you go back 28 years to reinvent Reagan." It's gotta be, "Here's how you apply conservatism to solve America's problems today."
RUSH: Wait a minute, Newt, how are you going to apply conservatism to today's problems when you just said it's dead? Reaganism is simply conservatism. That's all it is, and if the era of Reagan being over is objectively a fact, then conservatism's finished. Now, nobody's talking about going back to the 1980s and reliving the same set of policies. What we're talking about is applying principles, which is what Reagan did, to the existing problems of that era. Those policies, the premises of conservatism, work. They are timeless. It's not a scheme. It doesn't have to be bent, molded, and shaped. Tenets of conservatism survive throughout the ages, just like liberalism does. They're both philosophical ideas. For our side to run around saying, "Well, it's over," misses the whole point. Nobody's talking about bringing Reagan back the identical set of problems in 1980. We're talking about the principles of conservatism and applying them to today's problems, and not moderating them, not modifying these principles so they're a little liberal here, a little liberal here, maybe a little moderate over here.
Sorry, Rush, but the era of Reagan is over and it is an objective fact.
Reagan died in about 2004.
Say what they want about “his ideas, policies, etc.” but it is also objectively over because we’ve had 8 years of Clinton and now a 4 year term by socialist Obama.
Is any sane person going to say this country functioning as when Reagan was in charge?
That’s total complete denial.