"Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors, which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?" - Ronald Reagan, 1975
Amazing, isn't it? One of the founding fathers of Conservatism made that statement almost forty years ago. It still applies today. In fact, it's even more applicable today than it was when he first said it. If he were around now to see what has happened to his party since he completed his second term in office, he would be disgusted. Sadly, the media has accomplished one of their long term goals. They've managed to convince enough Republicans that "pale pastels" are keys to victory. The liberal media has been successful in sabotaging the Republican Party by dividing it from within. You have to be pro-amnesty to win elections. You have to be pro-choice to win elections. You have to support big spending, bloated government welfare programs to win elections. You have to support gun control to win elections. You have to buy into the bogus Global Warming hoax if you want to win elections. Unfortunately for America, there are actually Republicans out there who believe that garbage.
You've heard it said, just as I have, "Conservatives can't win in purple or blue states.". The day that Republican voters started to believe that BS was an epic victory for democrats everywhere.
The last two Presidential elections are historic proof that just the opposite is true. Reality has shown us that PROGRESSIVE Republicans CAN'T win in purple or blue states! If they could, we would either be in the middle of President McCain's second term or in the middle of President Romney's first. Yet you still hear this nonsense about how Conservative candidates aren't electable. What's truly disheartening is that this crap actually comes from members of the Republican Party. It's one thing to hear Chuck Schumer talk about how Republicans need to soften on principle in order to win elections again. I expect that from him. He doesn't want Republicans to win elections, so it makes sense to hear him spew that gibberish. It's entirely different to hear someone like Karl Rove make similar comments. Isn't he supposed to BE a Republican? Doesn't he want Republicans to win elections again? Isn't he supposed to be an "architect" of Republican wins, instead of aiding in their losses?
Speaking of Mr. Rove. His recent actions during a Republican primary in the state of Mississippi happen to remind me of another Ronald Reagan quote:
"Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican."
Now, before you go and fact check me...yes, I know that Reagan wasn't the original author of that quote. In his autobiography entitled "An American Life" President Reagan attributed the quote to former California Republican party chair Gaylord Parkinson. However as we all know Reagan often made the statement himself, popularizing it as "The Eleventh Commandment".
How do you suppose Reagan would feel about Karl Rove's Super PAC, the sole purpose of which is to target Conservative candidates in Republican primaries? How do you suppose Reagan would feel about the giant smear campaign that was employed on Conservative Chris McDaniel during the 2014 Mississippi Republican primary? National Republican Party money was spent maligning McDaniel throughout the entire campaign. Democrat votes were bought with money donated to the party by Republicans. Yep, money donated to the GOP by Republican voters was used to campaign AGAINST a Conservative Republican. Conservative principles were attacked in TV ads, radio ads, and even in robo-calls that were paid for with Republican money. Elected Republicans like John McCain, and Mitch McConnell rode into town to campaign against McDaniel. All in an effort to re-elect a progressive that admittedly hosts campaign fundraisers in Cochran’s private home for liberal democrats.
If you think Ronald Reagan would have supported ANY of that, then I've got a bridge for sale that I'll give you one hell of a deal on. The view is absolutely gorgeous, and every lane is always wide open!
Sadly, Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" is violated almost daily by Republicans who are so eager to compromise with the left that they'll abandon Conservative principles at the drop of a hat. On March 6th, 2013 Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor to filibuster an Obama appointment. Paul's objection to the nomination centered around civil liberties and the potential future use of drones on American citizens. Personally, as a registered Libertarian, I consider the defense of civil liberties to be a Conservative issue and I applaud Senator Paul for having the cojones to stand up and fight against an oppressive big government. Unfortunately, some Republicans didn't feel the same way. Believe it or not, Mr. Paul was actually called a "whacko-bird" in public by a long serving, prominent Republican Senator from the state of Arizona. Now, I'm not exactly sure which grade school it was that Senator McCain picked up that clever little insult from, but I'm sure they'd like to have it back. It's more suitable for that type of venue than it is in the United States Senate. I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of witty retort McCain will come up with for the next Conservative with some guts who speaks out against progressivism. Maybe he will call Scott Walker a "doo-doo head"? Or perhaps he'll refer to Ben Carson as a "stupid stink face"?
In hindsight though, what do you expect from a guy who has spent decades in the Senate undermining Conservative principles? John McCain's entire career has been built upon limiting free speech (McCain/Feingold), promoting amnesty (McCain/Kennedy), and praising people like Hillary Clinton. There's a reason he was Teddy Kennedy's favorite Republican. McCain's been reaching across the aisle to champion progressive causes for years. Are these the type of candidates who should be representing the Republican Party? Guys who are willing to cave to progressives in the name of "compromise", but stand up to attack principled Conservatives with immature, childish name calling? Call me a "nut", but I'll take the guy any day of the week who goes out of his way to defend individual liberty over the guy who stands with Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein as they vote against the 2nd Amendment.
Some people mistakenly look at the current divide within the Republican Party as a "Tea Party versus establishment" issue. It's not. And it's never been that. It's always been about ideology. The "Tea Party" was a movement that was born in response to the asinine assumption that going along to get along would benefit the GOP. I'm still waiting for one of these squishy, spineless, unprincipled French Republicans to explain to me how giving into the opposition party is good for the GOP, or America at all. I'm sick and tired of hearing about how "compromise is how you get things done". Yeah...it sure is. History shows that it's exactly how you create massive deficits and a national debt that will never be paid for. Congratulations guys! You're "compromising" our way to bankruptcy. Good job, morons.
The "Tea Party" isn't a party at all. It's not even a faction of the Republican Party. It is multiple gatherings of every day, average citizens who were fed up with the direction the country was going. Average Americans who are Taxed Enough Already, and are tired of paying the way for freeloading moochers. They were average Americans who are concerned about our future generations and how they will sustain the massive debt that this generation is saddling them with. They're not a political party. They're not part of a political party. They're average Americans. Plain and simple. The liberal media did everything they could to portray these average Americans, standing up for their own rights, as racist, homophobic crazies. Unfortunately, too many people in both parties believed it. Some still do today.
No, the truth is that it boils down to Conservatism versus progressivism. You don't see it in the democrat party, because they're all mind numbed robots who are programmed to vote based on what letter appears after the candidate's name. And there are some in the GOP who are also programmed that way. To them, issues don't matter. It's all about which PARTY controls the House, the Senate, and the White House regardless of the candidate's stance on the various issues. As if a progressive Republican who votes with liberal democrats is supposed to be a better option than a liberal democrat that votes with the liberal democrats.
The democrat party, along with their cohorts in the mainstream media, has been extremely effective with this strategy. And for some odd reason, too many Republicans are too eager to be duped by it.
The fact of the matter is that the Republican Party hasn't nominated an actual Conservative for President since 1984. That was the last time. In 1988, the party nominated the establishment candidate that Reagan beat in the 1980 GOP primary, George H.W. Bush. In true progressive fashion Bush 41 went against his campaign pledge and raised taxes which was a major factor in his loss to his challenger in 1992, William Jefferson Clinton. At the time Clinton was a little-known Arkansas Governor with a history of womanizing. Yet, he was able to beat the progressive Republican incumbent.
As everyone knows, Clinton went on to win a second term by beating...yep, you guessed it, another progressive establishment Republican. Bob Dole. You know it. I know it. The people know it. Bob Dole knows it. He was a weak candidate from the beginning, but he was the "next in line" establishment, "good ole boy". So it was his turn to lose.
When George W. Bush challenged Clinton's Vice President, Al Gore, in the 2000 Presidential election the race was closer than it should have been. Al Gore was an unhinged lunatic, parading around the country claiming to have invented the internet. Talk about "unelectable". And that guy almost won! The race came down to multiple recounts, and a media fiasco in the state of Florida. Fortunately, Bush was ultimately declared the winner, and went on to win re-election again over a Democrat candidate who was EVEN MORE incompetent than Al Gore, if you can believe that. John Kerry’s "I voted FOR the war, before I voted AGAINST the war." still makes me giggle to this day.
Since 1988 the GOP has managed to win three Presidential elections while the democrats have won four. I was about to type that the only reason the Republicans won the three that they did was due to the fact that the opposition managed to nominate an even weaker candidate than theirs. Then I realized that that statement applies to both sides, in all of those elections.
The part that bothers me the most is that the GOP leadership STILL doesn't seem to be getting it. What's that old saying about the definition of insanity? They still believe that Conservative candidates can't win because they're too polarizing. You know what? The media said Reagan was too polarizing too. They said he was too Conservative. They said he couldn't win in blue or purple states. They said he wasn't "electable" too. And he won in one of the biggest landslides ever in the history of American politics.
It's time to try that again. And while there may not be a Reagan around today, there are good Conservatives who believe in the same principles that he did. Plenty of them. They're just not winning the nomination. They're referred to as “nuts” and excoriated in the media by progressives in both parties.
We've been trying it now with progressive establishment candidates for 26 years, and we're losing. Let's try what worked in 1980, and again in 1984. Let's ignore the liberal media's suggestions for how the GOP can win, and their warnings about who can't win, and actually nominate a Conservative in 2016.
I'm still not sure why in the hell any Republican with a brain would ever listen to suggestions from the opposition party anyway. Do you really believe that the liberal media wants the GOP to win Presidential elections? They're telling the party to move more to the left because they know from experience that is exactly how they can win! They're advice is just the opposite of President Reagan's. The democrat party and the mainstream media are counting on the GOP to continue to push pale pastels. It's time to ignore them, and once again listen to the base of the party.
BOLD COLORS! Conservatism is the answer. Let's just try it, and see what happens. I think Republicans will be pleasantly surprised.
Article Written by Levin Inches
