Posted on 03/06/2010 11:49:19 AM PST by Al B.
Sarah Palin invokes him. Mitt Romney glorifies him. The "tea party" movement hopes to recapture him. And the Republican Party still can't get over him.
Six years after his death, and almost a century since his birth, conservatives are more transfixed than ever by Ronald Reagan, so much so that I fully expect a Gipper anxiety disorder to appear in the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual.
"What would Reagan Do?" is a leading motto for the right. You can get the slogan -- or its WWRD acronym -- on a bumper sticker, a T-shirt, a coffee mug, a thong. There's even an iReagan app for your phone. And having renamed Washington National Airport for Reagan in the 1990s, last week congressional Republicans started agitating to have the Gipper replace poor Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill.
Such obsessions are not unique to the right: Writing three years after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, historian Richard Hofstadter noted that FDR so thoroughly monopolized the liberal imagination that his passing "left American liberalism demoralized and all but helpless." But today, conservatives are the helpless ones.
Reagan was the most popular and successful Republican president of the past century, so it makes sense that he would be the shining model for conservatives, just as FDR has been the gold standard for liberals. (No small irony, since Reagan voted for FDR four times and modeled his statecraft after the Democrat's.) But as the current occupant of the White House could warn, measuring yourself against historical icons is a recipe for disappointment. These days, President Obama is more likely to draw comparisons to Jimmy Carter than to Lincoln or FDR.
Yet ambitious conservatives are undeterred.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wow, glad to see that you’ve set such a high standard for yourself.:)
All of the country club, loafer wearing, hyper-arrogant, “elitist” republicans despised Ronald Reagan and everything he stood for. After all, he was so obviously their inferior in every way...not having attended Haavahd and living in the dirt-farmer west.
“I would consider voting for Liz Cheney. I think she is very sharp.”
And plenty of credentials, too...I like her a lot. She is a perfect blend of her Mom and Dad, I think...she will be a force that will need to be considered. Her detractors will slam her, like they do Palin, once she becomes that force, but I think it will only make her stronger.
To be fair, Mitt is not George.
However, Mitt is a political opportunist and should never be trusted.
Reagan and Palin are true conservatives to their core. Mitt is not.
YOU BETCHA Reagan would vote for Sarah, not only vote for her, but campaign for her. I think Ronny would be very proud of Sarah
This was an exceptionally evenhanded article.
I had to be sure that WP actually was the source.
Thanks for posting.
:)
“I’ve always liked “What would Bill Clinton Do?”
But the answer is always, “SND & PHPD.”
Well...YES!
We have Obama literally worshipped by large numbers of indoctrinated and brainwashed people including the mainstream media, schoolchildren made to sing songs to him as if this were North Korea, Obama claiming to masses of credulous, wide-eyed followers that he will “heal the planet” and what does this guy write?
(Glenn Beck w/pipe Harvard voice): “Conservatives are obsessed with Reagan, mmm yesss, mm hum, I fully expect a Gipper anxiety disorder to appear in the next edition of the psychiatrists’ diagnostic manual, ha ha, hee hee! There is nothing to compare this to on the Left today, for conservatives are the helpless ones, mmm, yesss, um hum.”
I agree with you. There is certainly room for discussion and disagreement with Hayward, but I thought the article was very fair-minded.
“All of the country club, loafer wearing, hyper-arrogant, elitist republicans despised Ronald Reagan and everything he stood for. After all, he was so obviously their inferior in every way...not having attended Haavahd and living in the dirt-farmer west.”
The *really* bad news is that they have outlived him, and are still selecting candidates like Bob Dole and what’s-his-name McCain.
Looks like they got along well enough.
Pants optional, right? sarc/
He publicly called Reagan "an amateur". He was no Reagan fan.
You can’t always trust photo-ops.
Would be nice if “someone” brings that up in a future primary debate.
;)
When and where are those photos taken ???
In the bottom photo Ronald Reagan is looking right past George Romney and grinning at his friend who is taking the photo...
George Romney is not emotionally in the group but is staring at something else in a bored unfriendly manner...
the pic looks like they did not “get along well enough”
Plus after George Romney lost the nomination to Barry Goldwater at the Republican convention 800-40, he stormed out of the convention, young Mitt in tow and worked with the Democrats against Goldwater and helped Johnson win the election...
Mitt was groomed by George to be president and this was part of his early training...hatred of the conservatives in the Party...
Mitt acts and speaks against conservatives much like George did in the 1960s...
BTW, that info comes from Craig Shirley's wonderful book on the 1980 campaign, Rendezvous With Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America. A great book if you're a political junkie and want all the "inside baseball" stuff from that campaign.
Michael Reagan wondered if someone similar to his father would come along someday. He then realized his father was one of kind, and told his fellow conservatives to stop looking for another Ronald Reagan to lead the country.
When he first saw Sarah Palin speak at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Michael had a change of heart. Michael said he saw his Dad re-born when Sarah gave her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. “I saw my Dad re-born, only this time he is a she.”
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