Jeb Bush, GOP: Time to leave Reagan behind ("nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era)

The Washington Times ^ | 5/3/2009 | Joseph Curl

[SE Mom]

Jeb was my governor and he did a find job overall- but he and apparently a great many others in “leadership” of the GOP do NOT grasp the undercurrent of restlessness and profound distrust we have for the message he’s sending and toward government overall.

It’s not Reagan himself (though he’s missed) that we long for. It’s the forthrightness of the way he spoke, the clarity of his vision and abilty to communicate- smaller, less intrusive government is best for us all.

Listening to Jeb and others who think as he does you’d have to believe that what the GOP needs to do is become more pro-government...more Teddy Roosevelt, less Ronald Reagan. Nothing could be further from the truth.

They sound like fools, from Meghan McCain to Jeb Bush.

What would be USEFUL is for them to publicly debate the “tea party” faction of the electorate. Let Jeb sit down for an hour with Mark Levin and debate the role of government in the lives of citizens. THAT would be instructive. Debate actual ideas and principles, not policy and personalities.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to promote some debates similar to Firing Line- the debates between William F Buckly and John Kenneth Galbraith were remarkable. They were civilized, they were intelligent and informed. Instead of being infuriated (as we find ourselves during these cable soundbites from opposing parties) after listening to them, we were better educated.

[OCCASparky]

Dear Jeb, maybe you, your brother, and your father would do well to read, and better yet, UNDERSTAND, the words which Reagan spoke at arguably an even darker day for the GOP than that which we now face:

I don‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party”—when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

Hey, there's an idea, Jeb!

[MinuteGal]

Jeb's nose is cut off because neither his father or his brother lived up to the greatness of Ronald Reagan....and he knows he can't do it either.

So, the best thing for him to do is to call for the the permanent burial of the Reagan legacy because, as he realizes, comparisons are odious.

Leni

[Jabba the Nutt]

Am I the only one, who thinks the Bush Political Family has a little credibility problem on how to build the GOP? The first President Bush cratered with the biggest political collapse in American history going from 90% approval rating to 37% of the vote in just a couple of years. He ended up giving us 8 years of Bill Clinton.

Now, Bill Clinton doesn't look so bad in retrospect in comparison with what 8 years of Bush Presidency gave us in just 100 days of Barack Obama.

Full disclosure, I've felt this way about the Bush's since 1989, "go away, shut up and never, ever come back". That goes for Jeb too.

[steelyourfaith]

The two political parties are shamelessly engaged in a choreographed dance, alternatively leading at slightly different tempos, but both intending to push this country leftward toward Big Government.

The Republicans had their chance when they controlled both houses and the Presidency and they utterly failed to make any significant movement to restore traditional American freedom as promised in the Constitution. On the contrary spending increased and freedom decreased.

Bush II was marginally better than Obama, but it's time now to pick up the tempo, pedal to the metal socialism. To the benefit of whom? Almost exclusively only the political elites.

Of course, all RINOs are required to bash Reagan, America's last great President.

[Arthur McGowan]

She has my vote.

[SolidWood]

Time to leave the Bushes, RINOS and liberals behind!

[HoosierHawk]

If these folks want to run away from the Reagan legacy, that's fine by me.

They're on their own.

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

The answer of course is clear, let’s run McCain again. And again . . .

[Jabba the Nutt]

George H W Bush was the biggest mistake that Ronald Reagan ever made.

[TomGuy]

We’ve been warning conservatives about Jeb Bush for years. I hope everyone now understands who and what these people are.

The trouble is that whomever the GOP nominates, most of the regulars will fall in line and vote for him. They did for McCain. They will for Bush or Romney or whomever the nominee is.

They vote for the same and expect a different result.

It ain't gonna happen -- unless and until someone from outside the mainstream makes enough of an impression and manages to wrangle control away from the country-club Republicans.

The Democrat Party and the Republican Party are little more than opposite sides of the same coin.

[Jim Noble]

The Bush clan has been dying to leave Reagan behind since January 20, 1981.

This is nothing new.

[Right_in_Virginia]

We need new blood and new faces. Jeb Bush will not help.

[MinuteGal]

Ah, excellent point, my dear Prism!

I had forgotten about Jeb's betrayal of Katherine Harris.

A GOP elephant is supposed to remember these things, LOL.

Leni

[EternalVigilance]

Two legs of the socialist beast, I call ‘em.

[timetostand]

I for one will not leave Reagan and all he stood for behind, I will however leave a Rino dominated Republican party! If this crap continues the GOP is dead!

[McGruff]

No more Clintons, No more Bushes!

[gusopol3]

The Democrats out spent us by 10-1, thanks to Obama’s lying he would accept public financing, as McCain did and so geared his campaign, then reneged late in the game and spent huge amounts of untraceable money. The hedge funds, etc., who bundled so much of that money, won’t be there for him next year or 2012.

[FR_addict]

“It is definitely time to leave the Bushes behind. No more Bushes!”

Exactly!

Reagan's mistake was selecting George Bush as VP. Republican strategists wanted Texas. Reagan didn't need Texas with his landslide.

The other Bush's felt the same way about Reagan. Jeb Bush is the only one who says it out loud.

The Bush's and other “so called moderates” were leading us down the path of Socialism, slowly. Obama just speed-ed things up.

“NO MORE BUSHES” makes a great slogan for 2010.

[GladesGuru]

Political dynasties produce inbred idiots. Jeb is worse, in that blind desire to win leads him to advocate collectivism, even though he knows it can’t be sustained financially.

Electing members of political families gave us the following collection of undesirables: rest of the Bush family, the Kennedy clan, ad nauseam.