Column: He helped make Ronald Reagan president. Now he's had it with the Republican Party

LA Times ^ | 06/03/2021 | Mark Z Barabak

[ChicagoConservative27]

Recently, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library launched a lecture series titled “Time for Choosing,” a name consciously echoing the famous 1964 speech that launched Reagan’s political career and put him on a path to the White House.

The concept — marquee names, history-rich backdrop — is a throwback to a time when politics involved ideas and philosophies and wasn’t just about riling “the base” or “owning” the opposition. The program also gives Republicans a chance to paint their visions while wrapping themselves in the mantle of one of the GOP’s most beloved and sainted figures.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Who the hell is Stuart Spencer??

[Retrofitted]

This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Spencer_(political_consultant) Basically, he’s a “political consultant that ran Reagan’s gubernatorial campaign in ‘66.

[OttawaFreeper]

I read through the article and one dead giveaway about it was that it did not bother telling people that there were the RINO types back in 1980 who wanted Reagan to drop out and for Jerry Ford to retake the nomination because they thought Reagan too extremist and that that was supposedly turning off voters.

[Eddie01]

“M an idiot he screamed! ...and no one disagreed.

[Pilated]

I don’t care who some old fool voted for. I vote the way my brain sorts out the info I am given.

[PghBaldy]

He is a crackpot: "I’m a great believer in moderation,” Spencer said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have strong ideas. But you need to understand there are two sides to every question." I doubt Reagan would have been impressed with Trump, but would he have voted for Gary Johnson and Joe Biden? Reagan was considered extreme by much of the country & the media.

[Obadiah]

With the corrupt MSM you always get endless speculation and picking apart of every nuance of the Republican Party and you absolutely never ever get one iota of introspection or examination of the Democrat Party. Why is this?

[smokingfrog]

The MSM will look under every rock to find anyone that will criticize a conservative.

[elpadre]

Time to formulate a new “Contract for America” based on the Trump vision for America. Candidates running on the contract will receive Conservative, most of Republican and most of Independent support.

[Wuli]

I have always realized that political election campaign “gurus” (like Stu Spencer) have less political principles than the people whose campaign’s they manage(d). There are as much prostitutes as are salesmen - its all about the sales job and they do not care who they do it for.
Such is the status of Stu Spencer when he dares to pontificate on what Reagan would and would not agree with here in 2020. (Stu convinced Reagan to take the disastrous G.H. Bush).

Reagan would fully agree with Trump that the Democrats have moved even further to the Left than they were in 1980, and after Reagan and until Trump the GOP had not been adequately trying to counter those moves.

[SmokingJoe]

Reagan was considered extreme by much of the country & the media.

“Extreme by much of the country” huh?
So extreme that he won FORTY NINE STATES when he run for reelection, including such hard core deep blue states like Vermont, New York, New Jersey, California etc?

[smokingfrog]

Even Ronoldus Maximus was known to make a few bad decisions.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Another Assistant Democrat that wants to meet the Democrats halfway on destroying the country.

[PermaRag]

"I read through the article and one dead giveaway about it was that it did not bother telling people that there were the RINO types back in 1980 who wanted Reagan to drop out and for Jerry Ford to retake the nomination because they thought Reagan too extremist and that that was supposedly turning off voters."

This doddering old schmuck (in his younger days) actually worked for doddering Jerry Ford. Some staunch conservative ol' Spence must have been, eh? Maybe in 1966, but not 1976 and sure as hell not 1980 and absolutely not 2021. Yet the media dredges him up today as an example of a conservative, but then the only type of conservative they will ever highlight is an "ultra-liberal conservative" oxymoron like this guy.

[hinckley buzzard]

Reagan would have frowned on Trump’s style or lack thereof, but he would have agreed with Trump’s antipathy to an oppressive corrupt leviathan bureaucracy.

[napscoordinator]

He talked reagan into signing abortion into law In California. Killing babies were all the rage during his governorship. Ugh.

[KarlInOhio]

One of the big differences between then and now is that the people and parties have aligned with the ideologies, so you no longer have many conservative southern Democrats or liberal northeastern Republicans. Thus you don’t have congressmen breaking with their parties to do what their people want as often. The biggest group left is a large number of blacks who are conservative and religious who would be at home with the Republicans but just don’t leave the Democrats. If they moved it would shake American politics.

[Vigilanteman]

I’m guessing a jagoff who has no problem supporting China’s puppet emperor Joe Xiden.

[Burma Jones]

Stu Spencer has always been a RINO gun-for-hire, and he constantly blew hot and cold on Reagan, flipping between I-can-get-this-guy-elected and why-am-I-trying-to-get-this-right-wing-cowboy-kook-elected?

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

Reagan knew very well the deviousness of the media and the Democrat Party. More than most, he would have been able to understand the effort to smear Trump was based on the left's quest for power rather than ideology. When it comes to policy, Reagan would have stood behind Trump.

So, whenever I see these so-called conservatives come out against Trump for reasons of personality, I know that their political beliefs are more centered on the acquisition of power (or money) rather than what is truly best for all Americans.