Posted on 09/17/2015 7:25:13 AM PDT by IChing
Most Republicans running for president have only one idea: Be like Reagan!
Unfortunately, they seem to remember nothing about Reagan apart from the media-created caricature of a slightly addled old man who somehow mesmerized an imbecilic public with his sunny optimism.
Jeb! goes around saying, "I believe we're on the verge of the greatest time to be alive."
Marco Rubio answered a question in the first debate about God and veterans, saying: "Well, first, let me say I think God has blessed us. He has blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates. ... And I believe God has blessed our country. This country has been extraordinarily blessed. And we have honored that blessing. And that's why God has continued to bless us."
John Kasich responded to a question at the New Hampshire presidential forum about why he was running, saying: "Well, Jack, look, we're all -- we -- I've received blessings. Most of us here have been very, very blessed, and when you get that way, you have to figure out what your purpose is in life to make the world a little better place."
They all sound like Barney, the purple dinosaur, singing, "I love you, you love me!"
The other problem with the Be Reagan strategy is: It's not 1980 anymore. Reagan's election is as far away today as the defeat of Hitler was then.
Gov. Scott Walker's answer to whether he'd invade Iraq, knowing "what you know today," was: "I'd point out that in the overall issue of foreign policy, I'd say in my lifetime, the most impressive president when it came to foreign policy was a governor from California."
What does that even mean? Is he going to invade Grenada, fund the Contras and put missiles in Western Europe? Back in 1996, when Bob Dole said, "I'm willing to be another Ronald Reagan, if that's what you want," at least people laughed.
When Moammar Gadhafi was under siege in 2011, Rick Santorum said: "Ronald Reagan bombed Libya. If you want to be Reaganesque, the path is clear."
On the other hand, in the quarter century since Reagan bombed Libya, Bush invaded Iraq, prompting Gadhafi to end his WMD program, invite in U.N. weapons inspectors, and pay the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims $8 million apiece.
Nonetheless, "bomb Libya" is exactly what our feckless commander in chief did. Obama sent American troops to participate in the NATO bombing of Libya -- which helped oust Gadhafi, which led to Islamic lunatics running the country, which led to the murder of four Americans, including our ambassador, in 2012, and the refugees flooding Europe today.
Formulaic applications of Reagan's policies from the 1980s don't always work the same way they did in the 1980s. (Similarly, Duran Duran's new single was kind of a dud.) I used "What Would Reagan Do?" as a joke back in 2005; these guys think it's an actual governing philosophy.
When Reagan was running (three and a half decades ago), there was a real fight in the Republican Party over abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, guns and foreign policy. Reagan had to face down elements in his own party to be pro-life, anti-ERA, pro-gun and to pursue an aggressive anti-Soviet foreign policy.
Reagan won. It's over. The ERA is gone. The Soviet Union is gone. The GOP is unquestionably the party of life and the Second Amendment. (If only fetuses could get their hands on a gun!)
Ever since the hero of 9/11, Rudy Giuliani, couldn't get out of the starting gate in his presidential bid because he was pro-abortion and anti-gun, no serious Republican candidate is ever going to waver on those two issues again.
So why did Marco Rubio find it necessary to stress that he opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest at the first GOP presidential debate? Did he not live through that whole Todd Akin thing, like the rest of us?
Today, the fight in the Republican Party isn't over abortion, guns or the Sandinistas; the dividing line is immigration. Will we continue to be the United States, or will we become another failed Latin American state?
On this, it's Donald Trump (and the people) vs. everyone else.
Trump announced his presidential campaign by talking about Mexican rapists. Immigration is the only policy paper he's put out so far -- and he's been crushing the polls. He got his one sustained standing ovation from 20,000 cheering fans in Dallas Monday night when he talked about stopping illegal immigration.
But James B. Stewart gasses on in The New York Times about Trump's "namecalling, personal attacks and one-liners that have vaulted him to the top of the polls." In the entire article, Stewart never mentions immigration.
Perhaps some minority of people will vote for Trump because of his personality. But I notice that it's his position on immigration that gets thousands of people leaping to their feet.
The media will talk about anything but Trump's specific, detailed policies on immigration -- all while claiming he doesn't have any "policy details." The very fact that the entire media -- including most of the conservative commentariat -- obdurately refuse to acknowledge the popularity of Trump's immigration plans is exactly why Trump is exploding in the polls.
Trump isn't trying to imitate anyone. He's leading on the seminal issue of our time while the rest of the field practices looking optimistic in front of the mirror.
I am glad you spoke out.
Next time, watch if the busboy cleans the table with disenfectant. Video it. If no disinfectant, report the restaurant to the Dept of Health.
You mean to try to tell me that our marines killed in the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983 had nothing to do with defending Israeli interests? Please.
I’m not “way off” on anything!
Beirut wasn’t about Israel.
What were the Marines doing in those Beirut barracks?
“The Beirut Barracks Bombings (October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon”
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing<
That is funny. It is one of the words that I repeatedly misspell. My wife goes to a Vietnamese nail salon where most of the girls are actually from Vietnam. Despite coming from an agrarian culture the ladies there are meticulously clean and neat. My wife has been going to the shop so long that she now can understand Vietnamese very well.
One day her favorite gal, Hanna was saying how much her husband can't stand working with Mormons. She said he employs Mormons in his landscaping business and they are lazy, dirty, threatening, and always needing special accommodations so they can pray to Allah. My wife told her that it was Muslims not Mormons that her husband was referring to. All of the girls got a big laugh out of it.
The Vietnamese are very resentful of illegal aliens because they had to jump through a lot of hoops to get here aand it makes them feel very upset that others are just walking into the country without permission and receiving all sorts of accommodations.
“These attacks eventually led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.”
So, you’re clear, we were a peacekeeping force NOT FIGHTING FOR ISRAEL!!!!
Yeah right. So much of our military history and foreign policy is oriented toward defending Israel it’s not funny.
Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that (they are our allies) — the point is, why should we vilify white nationalists yet sacrifice our own on behalf of Jewish nationalists?
If ethnic nationalism is okay for others, then it’s okay for whites. If you disagree, you’re obviously a cuck.
Listen clown, you’re the one who insisted that American’s have been fighting and dying for Israel.
I said you were wrong, and you have failed to prove otherwise.
The discussion wasn’t about which policy I agreed with, it was about facts.
And you’re wrong about the facts.
So, now you’re mad about that and resort to name calling.
Grow up!
You seem quite upset that you’ve been owned, lol
“but the (Trump) run has been about taking Bush out. I think it all adds up now....”
Well, whatever it takes. God works in mysterious ways.
(Anyhow, wasn’t Chiles in office when the casino-in-Florida situation occurred?)
“People are backing him based on emotional affinity.”
Probably not good to insult the intelligence of the majority of FReepers. Do you really think we are uninformed idiots driven solely by emotion? He may not be your cup of tea, and I get that, but it’s wrong to imply that all other opinions that disagree with yours are stupid.
We know that the invasion of illegals — and not just from Mexico — is the major threat to the integrity of America. He has policies to handle this. We like that.
He will release his tax policy in a couple of weeks. For those of us who won’t like it, some of his support will drop.
He’s often criticized the size of the government, especially the waste associated with it. It’s “too big”.
Second Amendment? As far as a written policy goes, he probably hasn’t provided one. He and his sons hunt; I doubt he’s squeamish on firearms. We have time to collect all the information we want and/or need. If we don’t get it, then we adjust our opinions.
It’s true that there’ll never be another Reagan who, by the way, made a big mistake when it came to immigration. He was not perfect.
“The problem in this country is that no one calls people out on bad behavior”
Actually, it should read, “no one calls FOREIGN people out”, and that’s because we’ve been programmed in PC for 30 years. I think it was Patrick J. Buchanan who warned us back then that political correctness would create the end of America. He was right. The PC Police have us in line and under control; it is ruining the country. Trump is the only one with the balls to speak out against it — thank God.
Were you WRONG about American’s “fighting and dying for Israel”?
All you own is failure.
We devote immense energy toward securing the Jewish homeland/borders, yet to defend our own border or nationalistic identity is taboo. Puh-leeze.
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