Forget Reagan?

There’s a lot of talk going around various media places that suggest the Republicans should forget about Ronald Reagan. I need to ask – the dancer or the President? If it’s the former, done, so long. And as long as his Mom’s still with us that’s all I’ll say. But forget about President Reagan? How can anyone with good intentions toward conservatism and the Republicans (to a lesser extent) seriously suggest this, after surveying the electoral wasteland of the last two election cycles? It is precisely because the Republicans have forgotten Reagan and what he espoused and believed in, that Republicans are in the representative crapper. Since the election of Bush the HW, a creeping rot has eaten away the structural caissons of the Right. The rot was temporarily cauterized during the first few years following the Gingrich congress, but it started growing anew following the election of Bush the W.

So what is it that should be forgotten about Reagan? Should we forget the economic policies that launched a thirty year plus economic boom? As a country we already have. In the coming months and years we will feel, all too painfully the effects of forgetting “Reaganomics”. Maybe we need to forget the idea of getting government out of the way of private businesses, in order to spur their creativity to develop new and better products. (think Apple, Microsoft, and the whole technology explosion) This is another thing the country has forgotten. Now we have the government owning once private businesses. Two old ideas come to mind. The first is the old axiom, “as GM goes, so goes the nation”. The second is the idea, more than idea it is almost a proverb – that the government will screw up most anything it is tasked to run. Can you see what’s in store for GM and the country now? As Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution, government is the problem.”

Maybe what we need to forget about Reagan is the way he led our nation on the world stage. The now thirty year long war Iran has waged against us was only 444 days old when Reagan was first inaugurated. Within minutes of his swearing in the Iranians went into a strategic retreat. Now we’ve got a President to goes around apologizing to the Iranians for exactly what, is anyone’s guess. Reagan’s idea of “peace through strength”, his re-constitution of the military in general and Navy in particular, and his initiation of real missile defense is what brought the Soviet Union to it’s knees without firing a shot. A few weeks ago, our President announced a reduction in the development of our missile defense technologies. And how did the world respond? Well, the very next day North Korea, as belligerent a nation as you can find, test fired it’s latest long range missile. A pointed commentary on the rebuilding of respect for America that the new administration keeps on telling us about.

Even Reagan’s way of working with Democrats in Congress, with real, good faith horse trading and compromise has long been forgotten. He and Speaker Tip O’Neill had a tough, hard nosed relationship. But at the end of the day, one of them, I don’t remember which, said “we’re just two Irishmen having a beer.” That kind of adversarial, but respectful cross-the-aisle bipartisanship came to an end in the fall of 1987 with the savaging of Robert Bork.

So Republican pundits, you want to forget about Reagan? I have a news flash for you. You already have. Willingly. Enthusiastically. And you have done it for the same reason that Arlen Spector has moved back to the Democrats, just to win elections. How has that worked out for you? The pundit class of the Right (with exceptions) has allowed themselves, and Reaganism to be cast by the MSM as being heartless-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-favoring-racist-war-mongering-immigrant-hating-corrupt-evil-environment-destroying-constitution-shredding-nazi-like-facist Cossacks. And for what? To be welcomed into the liberal salons of Manhattan and San Francisco? Feh.

The Republican party, now more than ever needs to remember Ronald Reagan. And in a very big way. His principles, his love of country, his defense of the unborn, his commitment to America’s leadership on the world stage, his desire to create a climate where all Americans’ boats would be lifted on a tide of economic expansion and his attempt to get the federal government off the backs of all Americans.