Posted on 05/03/2009 6:05:21 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.
The former president's brother, often mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012, said President Obama's message of hope and change during the 2008 campaign clearly resonated with Americans.
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said.
"From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."
The Florida governor joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on Saturday at a small pizza parlor in Arlington for the inaugural event of the National Council for a New America (NCNA).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
While we’re ditching Reagan, we should also leave Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, et. al. behind. After all, their message is clearly stale and the Democrats HAVE something. That something clearly lies afoul of the message of these has beens and so, we should adapt to that new message . . .
Do I have to /sarc?
We need to bring Reagan's message forward, but the GOP desperately needs to update the people delivering the message.
No more Bushes ... and no more McCains!
That centrist strategy was a loser in 2006 and 2008, and their solution is to move the party even more to the left?
Add to that States rights especially on issues like gun control, abortion, DOE abolished, IRS abolished, and term limits for all civil servants!
I liked GW Bush and had respect for GHW Bush, but our country simply does need another Bush in the Presidential arena. Dynasties are unAmerican.
Funny, the democrats still talk about the heyday of FDR and LBJ. We need to return to the Reagan type of leadership once again.
I’m on board. Waiting for 2012.
Screw the GOP!!
Oh crap, here we go!
It’s time to form another party.
Romney will NEVER get the grass roots to fall in line and vote for him.
Anti gun Republican will never get support in a national election!
The southern states would vote RAT if not for the gun issue.
Allow me to translate that for everybody:
"Let me go through your pockets, man..."
I've really has enough of the Bush clan to last a lifetime. We need fresh blood.
I agree with that. By 2012 nobody under 35 will have any meaningful memory of 1989, let alone 1980 ... and we certainly cannot expect the public schools to teach history. Therefore, we need to stop relying on the Reagan name as if it alone will win elections, any more than the Lincoln name will win contemporary elections for Republicans.
Let’s take a look at the Reagan philosophy and determine just what is obsolete...
1. Slow down the growth in non-defense government spending.
2. Reduce the role of government in our daily lives.
3. Reduce government red tape and regulation in the productive private sector.
4. Lower the tax burden on the productive private sector.
5. Peace through strength.
6. Victory over foreign adversaries, not just co-existence.
What am I missing here?
What exactly is the Bush philosophy again? I am still not sure here is one.
SARAH!
The Bush clan would be nothing but for Ronald Reagan. Ask the average Republican whom they preferred as President - one even liberal historians rank among the greatest or the simpering prep school Bushes, father and son, who did their best to wreck his legacy by: 1) not believing in a single principle of which I’m aware; 2) appointing simpletons like David Souter and Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court; 3) spending like drunken fools; 4) dumping on conservatives every chance they got to please the coutnry club set. I hope Jeb Bush does not get the nomination for president because I will NEVER vote for another Bush.
Hubby and I won’t, we are done with The Bushes and other similar RINO’s!
Agreed. Conservative Party ticket: Palin/Bachmann 2012. Kill the GOP.
The problem is that if you don’t beat the Dems, your third party will be useless.
And Jeb's remarks are particularly offensive since Reagan is the only reason anyone named Bush ever made it to the White House, and the only reason Jeb himself became Governor of Florida, and is even considered a presidential possibility.
How soon these Bush RINOs (and all RINOs) turn on the one who gave them a national prominence they could never have achieved on their own.
yes, he is a rino (perhaps) and an amnesty supporter
HOWEVER we have to read exactly what he is saying because the media is incompetent in reporting.
we are in a situation of where we can never go home again. In the age of Ronald Maximus Reagan there was only three media outlets, newspapers actually mattered and there was no way to circumvent the media other than images and snail mail.
Obama has the sound bite down, the media now taylors pictures to be the most unflattering (or AP does outright computer alterations), we have a huge explosion of media sources, and social networking has replaced snail mail.
I think the problem for the political class is that they never have, still do not, and will never understand what Ronald Reagan SAID was coupled with what he did.
They still can’t grasp the outpouring of love expressed during the nation’s farewell on Reagan’s journy to his final resting place. The political class only grasps the concept of “cult” not vision.
IN his own bumbling way, Jeb Bush is attempting to say that Republicans need to EDUCATE the public as to the conservative vision. As Rush suggests, if we are not CONSTANTLY educating then we are losing.
Democrats only fight with emotions in order to enslave. Conservtives fight with brains and ideas in order to liberate.
Democrats loot, Republicans build. (something a real estate developer like Jeb Bush should never forget)
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