My Not So Humble Opinion on The Destruction of The Reagan Revolution

In 1988 a non charismatic, lifelong bureaucrat managed to win the Presidency of the United States of America in landslide proportions despite his inability to speak in a motivational way or offer any unique ideas that he wanted to accomplish should he win.
President Bush #41 was and is a fine man but not the type of candidate that most would think could win the White House by a landslide.
He managed this feat because he was a Republican.

In 1988 a “Republican” was seen as a politician who would strive to get an overbearing government out of the individuals way.
A Republican would not take crap off of nations with inferior totalitarian styles of government.
A Republican would laugh at the ridiculous claims & ideas spouted by Liberal’s. He would never give those ludicrous ramblings credibility by responding in a serious way to left wing rants & accusations.
A Republican believed that American’s should take responsibility for their individual decisions, the good ones and the bad.
A Republican believed innocent human life is protected by the Constitution.
A Republican believed the job of the judiciary was to interpret law, not to write law.
A Republican believed the government that governs least governs best.
A Republican believed taxes should be lower & charity would then be greater & more effective.
A Republican believed that man was a part of nature; his existence was not destructive to nature.
A Republican believed that the U.S.A. was the world’s last best hope, not the world’s biggest problem.
A Republican believed America’s Christian roots were something to celebrate, not lament.
A Republican believed that competition, accountability & liberty was the best way to make prosperity available to the largest number of people.
A Republican was proud of America and saw no need to apologize for that feeling.

Reagan convinced an entire nation that the Republican Party believed these things so voting for a Republican was like voting for your own heart.
This was one of the few flaws I see in Reagan’s legacy, his belief that “thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican”.
Because of that policy most American’s thought that the description “Conservative” & “Republican” were synonymous. Those terms were not synonymous then, nor are they now.
Never has the fallacy of unquestioned party loyalty been displayed more clearly than at the GOP convention of 2004 when Democrat senator Zell Miller took the podium & spoke on behalf of the Republican incumbent George W. Bush #43
Zell Miller was a Democrat in the mold of J.F.K. He was an unapologetic anti Communist & lover of America, a supporter of lower taxes & personable responsibility. Zell Miller was motivated by the words “ask not what your country can do for you…….” And Zell Miller believed “thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Democrat”.

After several decades of quietly watching his party defecate on each & every principle he believed in we come to 2004. One of the most powerful Conservative & Patriotic voices at the GOP convention came from a member of the opposing party that few American’s had ever heard of, despite his several decades of service to this country.

My point is that the principles of J.F.K. were not synonymous with “Democrat”. For those ideas to live on would have required an uncompromising commitment to those ideas on the part of Democrat party members, even if it meant losing an election or two by refusing to slouch toward Socialism.

The J.F.K. Democrats never made that commitment, as a result 48 years later they have drifted so far from those principles that they have chosen Barrack Obama (a Socialist) to represent the Democrat Party for President.
This man thinks (and has said) that our Constitution is an incredibly flawed document & he thinks America is a country that stands in the way of better nations improving the world with better ideas.
He is ashamed of America & befriends those who believe U.S. citizens deserve to be attacked and killed for our loyalty to the United States.
He apologizes for America to some of the most despicable monsters on the planet.

We Republicans are 28 years removed from Ronald Reagan’s nomination to represent the GOP. For the most part our members have kept the pledge to “never speak ill of a fellow Republican”, too bad that is about all we have been faithful to from the Reagan revolution.
We now give Liberals credibility by giving serious responses to their idiotic, illogical rants.
We now embrace generic talking points because we are not intellectually prepared to communicate our ideas freely.
A government solution to every problem is the first idea we embrace.
We support the growth, dependence & intrusion of government into almost every area of American life.

Reagan had no media sympathetic to his ideas but he spoke fearlessly with faith that the American people would hear him. Today we are terrified of “what the media will say” even though Republican’s today have many popular media outlets to help them communicate their ideas.

“The wicked flee when no one is chasing them”

We Republican’s are slouching toward Liberalism. Our unwillingness to burn down the “big tent theory” embraced by our leaders in the 90s has polluted the Conservative label to such a degree that most Americans cannot see a significant difference between the Socialism of the Democrats & the Socialism-lite of the Republican Party.
In 20 more years will we nominate a despicable anti American monster to represent us?
Do we even have 20 more years to find out?
If Conservatism has no courage or voices in our party what good is it to win an occasional election?
Will some other political party find an old relic from our glory days to speak eloquently at their convention some day?
Will people then say “Wow That guy is a Republican! Why?” Or “I never heard of him before, is that what Republican’s used to believe?

We cannot expect America to trust us with Congress & the White House if we refuse to discipline our own Party members & protect the philosophy we claim to embrace.
The moment we stop rewarding our members who “reach across the isle” and start backing those who promise to fight the Liberals & reverse the gains that the Socialist’s have made in recent decades, is the moment we will be victorious again.

That will be the same moment America will be victorious again.

We are fast approaching the time where our party can either choose to drop the priority of bipartisan compromises and declare political war on the left or risk an actual War Between the States.
The left has already declared war on Conservatives; we have just been unwilling to accept it.
The choice is ours, clean up own backyard and take advantage of the misery that will be widespread in 2010 with a strong, unapologetic Conservative message.
Or we can just pick up a few seats with our noodle spine leadership who feels the need to begin every sentence with “you know, I disagreed often with Ted Kennedy but he really was a great guy”.

I will not hang around like Zell Miller did & watch my Party crumble. I am an American Conservative first & a Republican second.
I pray I am not the only one left.

By RET423