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Your dislike of Pat is most likely honest, but the 11th commandment was broken by the Republican establishment before Mr. Buchanan bolted the party. Remember the articles by Safire alleging anti-Semitism? Dole publicly saying if Pat won the nomination, he wouldn't vote for him? Bennett and Kemp joining an unholy alliance in the papers, to call for non support for Buchanan if he won. Now realize, that if Pat would have won the nomination in 96, he would be running against Bubba. So you have several prominent Republicans breaking the 11th commandment, in 96. Of course, Pat is the traitor for deciding he wasn't needed in the party, unless of course as an usher. His voice was used, to say what the conservative wing wants to hear, but the annointed, like Dole or GW, would never allow to come to pass. Then when he gets uppity, he is kicked back to the curb.

In my opinion, conservatives in the Republican party, are used in exactly the same manner as Blacks are used in the Dem. The PTB, keep them around as tokens, to ease the bases concern.

I think the only person who ever obeyed Reagen's 11th Commandment, was Reagan himself.

People who slime Pat for leaving the Republican Party are hysterical and hypocritical; Pat tried playing by their rules and was spat on at every turn by the GOP hierarchy.

In several states they even kept his name off of the Presidential Primary ballots, solely on the authority of GOP bigwigs. They made it perfectly clear to Pat that he would never get a fair shake from within the GOP. They have no one to blame but themselves if Pat took them at their word, and chose to run outside the party instead.

To gain loyalty, you have to show loyalty, and that is something which the GOP leadership has never done; in fact, Reagan's presidency can now be seen as nothing more than a brief interruption between the rule of the usual GOP hierarchy and their pet establishment types. There is nothing they hate more than the idea that the GOP rank and file might actually prefer a real, genuinelly conservative candidate.

Reagan was the exception, not the rule.