Posted on 06/11/2012 9:14:09 PM PDT by Qbert
Former FL Gov. Jeb Bush says Ronald Reagan would have a hard time winning the Republican nomination today, because the party has veered too far to the right, and is “dysfunctional.”
“Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground,” Bush said, adding that he views the hyper-partisan moment as “temporary.”“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan support,” he said. Reagan “would be criticized for doing the things that he did.”
The GOP has nominated a Bush in 2000, re-nominated him in 2004, and then nominated centrist John McCain in 2008 and centrist Mitt Romney in 2012. During this same period, the Democrats nominated a sitting vice president once seen as a centrist but who had flown hard left on environmental causes, a left of center senator from blue Massachusetts, a left of center senator from blue Illinois, will soon re-nominate him after a left of center term as president. The Democrats made all of these nominations after two successful terms by centrist, DLC alum Bill Clinton, effectively repudiating centrism.
Of the two major parties, the evidence suggests that it is the Democrats who have radicalized to a greater degree than the Republicans have. The Republicans have responded to this Democratic leftward lurch by emphasizing economic issues, chiefly excess government spending and corresponding stress on the private sector in the form of high unemployment. If the Republicans had ignored these issues, it would have failed to stand on its core principles, and would have spawned a third party as fiscal hawks in the Tea Party and the GOP bolted to form a more fiscally serious party.
The fact is, Jeb Bush’s read of the past 30 years or so and of the current state of play between the two parties and their trajectories, is terrible. Jeb Bush’s analysis is incomplete at best if he sees the GOP as more sharply partisan now than it was under Reagan. Reagan spared nothing when criticizing Democrat and socialist policies. He went over the heads of the Democrats and the media to articulate his goals, and used the presidency effectively to achieve them. He occasionally compromised, and was sometimes criticized by many Republicans when he did, but more often than not his compromises brought the Democrats to the right, not the Republicans to the left. Jeb Bush apparently forgets that after Reagan signed one of his arms deals with the Soviets, many in the GOP base accused him of lapsing and becoming a Democrat again; he was criticized when his policies warranted it by his own party. Bush also apparently forgets this his own father coined the phrase “voodoo economics” to describe Reagan’s economic policies. That was before George H. W. Bush accepted the vice presidential nod from Reagan, such is the nature of politics. Bush 41 did find the common ground that Jeb Bush seems to hope current Republicans will find with Democrats, in the form a huge tax increase that sparked a recession and cost him his presidency. Bush 41′s finding common ground with Democrats paved the way for eight years of Bill Clinton. Is that the sort of functional party that Jeb Bush wants? — one that compromises on bad policy and hurts the country and itself at the same time? One that just becomes Democrat-lite rather than pulling Democrats over to support conservative ideas? One that creates “Obamicans” rather than Reagan Democrats? That isn’t how Bush governed Florida, and it’s among the reasons he left office as a very popular man.
There obviously is room for Ronald Reagan and the Bushes in today’s GOP. Romney is obviously to the left, at least if you go by past policy, of Reagan and Bush 43. If Jeb Bush cannot see that, or see how the media will play up his comments to hurt the Republicans, then that’s on him, not the party. He needs some brush-up media training to remind him that whatever he says about Democrats, if he reserves his sharpest criticisms for Republicans, that will feed the headlines.
Reagan left the Democratic party because the Democratic party left him.
The Bushes all joined the Democratic party.
I have two words for jeb bush.
Teri Schiavo.
Amen.
Jeb is right, Reagan would have a hard time at age 101.
Jeb is right, Reagan would have a hard time at age 101.
I would take a 101 year old Reagan over any Bush and Obama!
RINOs.
When they’re not telling us we wouldn’t elect Reagan today, they’re telling us his era is over and to MoveOn.
I’ve often maintained that we electec the wrong Bush when we put W in the White House, and Jeb had a decent conservative record as governor of Florida. But for little Jebbie to call today’s GOP “dysfunctional”, when a huge measure of the blame for the problems conservatives will face when we reclaim the White House and the Senate can in large measure be laid at the feet of “Read my Lips” daddy and Jeb’s budget-busting older brother W, is hutzpah at a world-class level.
How dare Jeb belittle the greatest president of the 20th century.
Nah, I put up with “read my lips” and lied and i do not understand why Reagan made him the VP.
I liked GW until he got involved in foreign wars, which another George warned against. I would have just blown their stupid countries apart and promised to do it again if they wanted to bring it to a test.
But for Jeb to attack the greatest Prez in the 20th Century? Give me a break. He is probably sobbing over the fact that his daddy and his sibling couldn’t measure up.
There are great men, and then there are whiners.
Give me a break!
Blessings, Bobo
Room temperature might be a challenge, too.
Re “veered to the right” — anybody think the Republican party has veered rightward?I can’t think of a single example. NCLB. No resistance to gargantuan government. Huge deficits under Bush. Failure to rein in Fannie Mae.
If his claims were actually true he wouldn’t be saying such things, at least in public; he would be keeping his head low. With Romney winning the republican nomination RINO’s everywhere are feeling empowered in their attacks against conservatives - expect the trend to increase in the coming months.
The Bushes resent Reagan and the conservative members of the GOP.
I was never a Bush bot and the more I hear of the Bushes the less I want to do with any of them.
Jeb and his whole family can kiss my skinny **S.
Two Bushes were more than enough, we don’t need another RINO.
RINO is RINO
"If his claims were actually true he wouldn’t be saying such things"
Backstabber Jeb's mad because he looks at Wisconsin and sees a future Reagan changing minds because of Conservative reforms, and he sees the governor of his old state standing up to the bullies in the DOJ... meanwhile Jeb's predictable, sanctimonious, pandering vision is getting left by the wayside.
I am prepared to take the heat for the following statement.
I believe Reagan was the best president of our era.
However...He was disparaged a lot during his terms.
He became the “best” after he left office and in retrospect.
"I am prepared to take the heat for the following statement. I believe Reagan was the best president of our era. However...He was disparaged a lot during his terms."
Why would it even matter to you in the first place if a bunch of economic illiterate leftists disparaged him?
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