When Reagan pronounced his famous 11th commandment, his statement was in the context of ‘Republicans’ and not what we see today as ‘Republicans + Rat Infiltrators aka RINOs’.
If anyone should think it far-fetched that a circle of democrats would devise and execute a plan to infiltrate the GOP, such people would be naive to say the least. Just today we hear a top Romney advisor stating point blank to the media that Obamacare will not be repealed.
Was Bloomberg once a Republican? When he ran first for NYC mayor he was certainly running as a Republican but he was certainly never a ‘Republican’. He was a democrat that could not win his own party’s nomination, so to overcome his own party’s rejection of him, he ran as Republican. Shall we not say bad things of Bloomberg because he seized the Republican brand for his own purposes?
Rat infiltrators to the GOP are now legion. I am sure if RR were here today to see it that he would clearly point out that at the very least the GOP RINO establishment needs a good shakeup.
Was George H. W. Bush aka Bush Elder a Rat Infiltrator RINO? No, he was not. He was a longtime Republican with a stellar service record in the USN and a capable Executive Branch appointee (CIA), but he lacked political courage. Lacking political courage does not make one a democrat infiltrator. Lacking political courage makes one incapable of rallying one’s followers to be inspired by a conservative vision of the future. That does not a democrat make, rather it makes one a footnote to history rather than a page to it.
A Rat Infiltrator is a person that identifies themselves as a democrat but becomes a Republican for nefarious purposes or because it suits their selfish ends.
Deomcrats that ‘defect’ can only be genuine if they were part of the now near extinct species of conservative democrats aka ‘Bluedogs’. They were conservatives in a historically democrat district that had since turned liberal, and they find a need to make the crossover in order to be true to their values.
Ronald Reagan was one such democrat ‘defector’ although he ably characterized the ‘defection’ as “I did not leave the democrat party, that party left me”.
But in his time, Reagan knew there existed many conservative democrats, who were loyal to the United States, to capitalism and to the Constitution. But he also knew there were many hardcore leftists in the democrat party who had no allegiance to the United States and its Constitution. I am certain if RR saw those hard core leftists crossover into the GOP, he would have pointed them out and would have made them an exception of his 11th commandment.
Ronald Reagan was one such democrat ‘defector’ although he ably characterized the ‘defection’ as “I did not leave the democrat party, that party left me”.
How would you categorize Rudy Guiliani ? He was a liberal democrat that got sick of the machinations of the party, he was not then, nor is now, a conservative. Never the less, Reagan saw fit to make him a U.S. Attorney and supported him there.
My personal opinion, is that while Rudy isn't a "Rat Infiltrator", he is absolutely a liberal who would love to turn the GOP to the left, like Chris Christie...to many people mistake partisanship with ideology.
Rudy is no conservative, but while he may be very partisan (at least now) with the GOP, he sure as hell is liberal (In NYC, he ran on not only the republican partys line, but also the now defunct Liberal party ballot line).