> “What happened to President Ted Kennedy?”
Kennedy ran against Carter in 1979 and came close. He was not defeated in the primary by a conservative. What is your point here?
> “Why did Birch Bayh lose?”
Again, Bayh was defeated by another democrat during his run for President in 1976. No conservative was involved.
> “George McGovern?”
George McGovern was defeated by Richard Nixon in 1972 in the presidential election. Nixon was not a conservative. So this does not help your argument.
> “Frank Church?”
Same story as for Bayh above. No conservative was involved in his defeat in the democrat primary for President.
> “Gaylord Nelson?”
I don’t know anything about him.
> “No one expected these titans to lose. They didn’t lose because of Reagan’s personality. They lost because their ideology was rejected.”
These ‘titans’ as you call them were never nominated by their democrat party to run as President except for McGovern who was defeated by Nixon who was not a conservative.
> “Remember Prop 13? Wasn’t that a conservative wildfire?”
I remember Prop 13 very well and was involved as a young man.It was led by Howard Jarvis who was pushing back on overreaching property tax increases led by very large increases in home valuations.
Jarvis was a fiscal conservative because he was a lobbyist for Apartment Owners who were going under because property taxes were going up and because there were rent controls that did not allow them to raise rents.
I got involved along with my neighbors because an elderly widow on our street who lived on Social Security alone and who had lived in her home for more than 50 years was going to be foreclosed on by the County because she could not pay the property taxes which had more than tripled because the home value had increased so much. She was 77 years old and she was comfortable with no desire to leave. She wanted to die right where she was, right where she had shared more than 50 years with her husband who had just died three years previous. She had known no other home after they were married.
When I found out what was happening to her, I could not believe the cavalier attitude I heard from the county tax assessor’s office which was she had had the option to sell her property.
So Jarvis won his anti-property tax initiative by a huge margin.
Yes this was a ‘conservative’ victory but the people who voted were not of the conservative philosophy, they were of the ‘what is fair and sensible?’ philosophy. For example, I was a student. I was neither liberal nor conservative. And most Californians were the same.
> “Why did the ERA fail?”
Not because of conservatism but because it made no sense on how it could be managed. It also seemed the people pushing it were more aligned with leftwing extremists. There was no conservative champion that defeated it.
> “Remember how broad the opposition to the Panama Canal treaty was?”
Just like the Iran Deal is today. The Panama Canal giveaway was Carter and people were disgusted with Carter’s incompetence.
> “It was a conservative wave. Led by brillaint, principled conservatives.”
No. It was not a ‘conservative’ wave. There were some conservative leaders but not so many as one might expect. Most leaders were moderates and listening to their constituents who were angry and concerned.
> “Jenifer Rubin would’ve been with Bill Bennett, Dr. Krauthammer and her fellow neocons in the Democrat party.”
I think she would been with Jane Fonda and the like against Reagan until Reagan had become so wildly popular and loved. Then I see her as switching over just as so many democrats did especially southern democrats. For example, Haley Barbour and Thad Cochran were democrats that switched parties for ‘convenience’ when they saw how everyone was enthralled with Reagan after getting to know his style after awhile as President. I see Rubin as a political golddigger who will chase whatever seems fashionable for the day. She’s not a conservative although she says she is. She is the ‘token’ conservative columnist.
Conservatism as a ‘brand name’ is relatively new. It is true that generations of Americans including immigrants from the 19th and early 20th centuries were expected to fend for themselves in self-reliance. Their attitudes and values today would be called ‘conservative’ but they never called their way of seeing the world as ‘conservative’. They saw their responsibilities as the ‘American Way’. Conservatism has had a few slogans that have caught on such as Reagan’s “Peace Through Strength” and others but there is no doctrine or dictate that defines and mandates a conservative way of life other than remembrances of the American Way. Conservatives also define themselves today by what they are not. They are not liberals and will not advance the liberal agenda, at least we hope they won’t.
Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are in my view very conservative in their thinking (and I give DT a clean slate now that he’s in politics for real). For example, Ted will say “before we ever talk about reforming immigration we have got to have a secure border”. That’s not only conservative sounding it is also logical so it appeals to my intellect. Donald Trump will be even more direct. He will say he will build the most beautiful wall you ever saw and we can believe him because he has built some mammoth things in his life. He also says of illegal immigrants “they all have to go”; no exceptions, no side arguments, no dissertations on how or why, no elaborate speeches, etc. just simply “they all have to go”. That’s hard-line conservatism.
Is Donald Trump a conservative? At the beginning when I did not know much about him I thought he was all bluster, full of talk and full of himself. But I did my homework and found out he means what he says. For example, when Donald Trump says he will take care of our veterans, I now believe 100% in him. Here’s the proof:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3330070/posts?page=79#79
3 excellent responses!
I love Free Republic :)
Thank you, Hostage
The others were liberal icons who lost Senate seats in 1980. I wasn't talking about their Presidential runs. They lost "safe" seats in 1980 because it was a conservative time. You helped ignite it.
Ironic that you sympathized with the old lady who was going to lose her home back then, but now lionize the crony capitalist who tried to evict an old lady from her home so he could build a parking garage. And he tried the same thing to an old farmer in Scotland. They stopped him. I wonder how many more he succeeded in destroying. I guess they were just "losers".
Not because of conservatism but because it made no sense on how it could be managed. It also seemed the people pushing it were more aligned with leftwing extremists. There was no conservative champion that defeated it.
OK, it's been a long time, so I won't mock you. But the ERA was on it's way to easy passage until heroic conservative Phyllis Schlafly led the fight against it. You should remember that. Every conservative should. And young ones should be taught about her efforts.
The Bushbots would love to air brush her out of history. But she made a huge difference. She also led the fight for two generations to keep the platform pro-life.