Posted on 09/01/2015 10:11:25 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
The Washington Post’s token “conservative” columnist, Jennifer Rubin, was adamant.
Writing at the Washington Post in early 2013, Rubin demanded that the Republican Party, if they wish to remain viable, embrace the new realities of modern conservatism, including “celebrity candidates” in a piece titled”
Wrote Rubin, among other things:
The unfailing reverence on the American right for Ronald Reagan is understandable. He was the only exemplar of modern conservatism to win the White House, and unlike liberal icons such as Roosevelt or Johnson or Obama, he presided over an economic boom and became beloved by voters not normally drawn to his party. No wonder that Reagan, long before his death in 2004, attained mythical status in the conservative movement and the Republican Party. But that myth has become a burden for the modern GOP. It has bound Reagan’s followers on the right to policies and positions that were time-specific. The old guard has become convinced that Reagan’s solutions to the problems of his time were the essence of conservatism — not simply conservative ideas appropriate for that era. …The Republican Party may survive, but only if its politicians, activists, donors and intellectuals rethink modern conservatism and find new issues to defend and new arguments with which to defend them. The public face of the GOP can no longer be aging, ill-tempered Reaganites such as John McCain and Jim DeMint but must give way to a diverse, media-savvy generation that understands the America we actually live in. Only then can the essence of conservatism — the promotion of personal liberty — survive, and the GOP along with it.
And then? Wait for it…because then Jennifer Rubin suggested this:
Conservatives have come to deplore the role of personality in politics, scoffing at celebrity candidates. This is deeply misguided. …A successful political party must not just acknowledge new realities but adjust to them, even embrace them.
As the old saying goes, not being careful, Ms. Rubin and all those “we need to get beyond Reagan” types have now gotten exactly what they wished for.
It’s “misguided” to be “scoffing at celebrity candidates”? Weep no more. Donald Trump is a 100 on a celebrity scale of 1 to 10. “Acknowledge new realities…adjust to them…even embrace them”? Say no more. The Republican grass roots has acknowledged the “new reality” that is a GOP Establishment that effectively is supporting Obama’s Open Borders while campaigning on a vow to stop Obama’s executive amnesty. They have acknowledged the “new reality” that the GOP leadership in Washington campaigned on defunding Obamacare but refused to do it. They have adjusted to and embraced the hard reality that their leadership is engaged in a double-game, saying one thing but never carrying through, pitching to Main Street while quietly letting K Street call the shots.
Thus, having followed Rubin’s advice to a “T” (so to speak), you would expect Ms. Rubin and her likeminded to be thrilled, yes?
Wrong. Instead, she is…appalled.
Abruptly, Rubin does a 180, headlining this:
She states of the celebrity candidate she precisely demanded who appeals overwhelmingly to just what Rubin said must be appealed to – not “ill-tempered Reaganites” but rather “a diverse, media-savvy generation that understands the America we actually live in.” Now, suddenly, according to Rubin, these very same folks who in fact understand all too well “the America we actually live in” are supporting “not a bully but a crybaby.” And they have that “ugly side” thing going.
Typically, having scorned Reagan, she now misrepresents Trump. His attacks on illegal immigration are transformed by Rubin into attacks on “Mexican immigrants.” Not true, but hey.
When you demand a post-Reagan world and get it only to find out the crowd has left you behind too, suddenly Americans are the “angry right wing” “unhinged” with their favorite candidate exhibiting “immature and bizarre political thinking.”
Snaps Rubin: “Americans are not prepared to undertake mass roundups and destroy family units.” Does the name “Dwight Eisenhower” ring a bell with Rubin? You know, that angry right- wing Republican president who – as detailed here deported – initiated a program of mass deportation of illegals in June of 1954, resulting in the departure involuntarily or voluntarily of over a million in the first year of the program alone. Yes, by bus, buy train, by plane, and by ship.
All of this, as noted here cheered on repeatedly in the day by positive coverage from - yes - The New York Times. The Times was so enraged by the presence of illegals and their employment by the farmers and growers of the day that the farmers and growers were accused of “peonage” –that being a first cousin of slavery. Which is to say the use of illegals by the farmers and growers was not only an outrageous example of “ethics cast aside” in the view of the Times, it was racist to boot.
What’s really at play here in all of this “get over Reagan” business is not Jennifer Rubin. Rubin is merely a symbol of the problem that lies behind the collective numbers for Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz.
What all of this “get over Reagan”- and -“pick a celebrity” -who-is-media-savvy-and -can- energize- the-base-but-OMG-not-that-celebrity-or-that-ugly-base business is about is nothing more than Rubin giving lip service to the same-old-same-old Inside The Beltway GOP Insiderdom that is so out of touch with Outside The Beltway Republicans and conservatives it is by now almost a caricature of itself.
Just in the last day the Des Moines Register released a new poll that has Trump at 23% and Carson at 18%, with his support since January having surged by a whopping 22%. Not to mention his favorables, the numbers soaring from 27% to 61% positive.
Are these Iowans the “ugly right” as Rubin insists? Of course not. Between Trump, Carson, Fiorina and Ted Cruz the Outsiders one and all have a stunning 53% of the vote in that poll.
A week ago the New York Times actually took the time to investigate the Trump rise, reporting that Trump “has built a broad, demographically and ideologically diverse coalition”, “bridges demographic and political divides” and leads among evangelical Christians, moderates and the college-educated, less-affluent voters and “the most frequent, likely voters” - while “his appeal is greatest among those with little history of voting.”
Is there a message here? Yes, of course.
The base of the GOP has taken Jennifer Rubin’s 2013 advice to heart. They still love Reagan – they will always love Reagan. But they are moving forward. There is a new reality dawning in America. And the only people who are, irony of ironies, unwilling if not unable to “not just acknowledge new realities but adjust to them, even embrace them” – are Ms. Rubin and the entire GOP Establishment.
Sometimes you just can’t make this up.
Jeffery Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeffjlpa1
GWB: “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.”
That worked out so well...
You just gloss over Kelo as well...
Either you have principles or you don’t. A test of one’s principles is when the going gets tough.
Excellant...
Basically, he's sticking his fingers in his ears and saying “la la la, I can't hear you!”
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