How Goldwater and Reagan Responded to Defeat

The Daily Signal ^ | 7/2/2015 | Lee Edwards

[gwjack]

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s devastating opinions on same-sex marriage and Obamacare, some conservatives are asking themselves: Has America reached the point when we have become like ancient Rome in its final days, all bread and circuses, that we cannot make our way back to the ideas on which we were founded?

Do the actual words of the Constitution matter anymore? Should we give up the fight for limited, constitutional government and simply accept that the left has won?

Of course not! Conservatives have never been quitters as two of our greatest heroes—Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan—demonstrated when conservatism was at its lowest ebb in 1964 and again in 1976.

[gwjack]

I hope the Conservative candidate will remain faithful to the heritage of "political courage and commitment to principle."

Gwjack

[CondorFlight]

Problem was that Goldwater’s defeat also meant that Johnson swept Congress, giving him the ability to push through the Great Society —which we are still suffering from today.

[Pollster1]

I hope the Conservative candidate will remain faithful to the heritage of "political courage and commitment to principle."

For that to happen, we have to have a conservative candidate. This is by far the most important presidential election in our history. If we elect a conservative, Obamacare can be repealed and we can restore the rule of law. If not, there are no peaceable options for restoring freedom. I will be putting all of the time and money I can behi9nd the strongest remaining conservative - Cruz for now, Walker if Cruz fails, and myself preparing for the inevitable if neither wins. I hope others on FR will also put everything they have into protecting America.

[gwjack]

I’m with you, Pollster1.

I intentionally used a capital C in Conservative; I want a real one - not an impostor. One that will live the Scottish ballad that Reagan referenced after his 1976 defeat, “I’ll lay me down and bleed awhile; though I am wounded, I am not slain. I shall rise and fight again.”

Gwjack

[Fiji Hill]

On his radio program this morning, Dennis Prager remarked that conservatives don't fight.

The Obama Left doesn't acknowledge defeat--note how they have acted since last November's election. We need to adopt a similar attitude, and then we need to organize, rally, demonstrate, boycott, sue, heckle, stage guerrilla theater, get in faces and show that we won't let the Left push its agenda through without a fight.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

We need to adopt a similar attitude, and then we need to organize, rally, demonstrate, boycott, sue, heckle, stage guerrilla theater, get in faces and show that we won't let the Left push its agenda through without a fight

There are some things we can learn from the Left.

On another note, our feckless leadership has nothing to fear by taking a stand except a brow beating and the loss of campaign contributions from the Chamber of Commerce. And yet they do nothing. Such profiles in courage.

[TexasFreeper2009]

That’s the main difference between Republicans and Democrats.

When given the chance liberals push their agenda HARD.

The Republicans when given a chance decide it’s time for bi-partisanship!

[Monorprise]

I don’t regard the the arrogant edict of the Federal employees in black robes a political defeat but an opportunity to rally not only Christians but conservatives against the corruption of the Federal injustice system and begin the process of denationalization of the presumption that they are always he last word.

As Thomas Jefferson pointed out while we are inclined to give them everything in respect in politics we shall have no freedom or law but that which they at any given time permit.
Well now that court has established that there is no room for any law written by any party but themselves.
To accept their’s as the last word is not only to abandon our liberty but our self-government. This we cannot do so long as we remain republicans devoted to self-government.

Thus the organizing of our resistance to the unjust and tyrannical forced this body of corrupt men have brought upon us not only this day but for generations past must begin. Only after we have defeated this evil will we have a battle field on which our ideas of liberty and justice have a fighting chance.

You can’t win by the rules when they constantly redefine those rules to give themselves advantage. Its time we are willing to break their rules just as they have been.