The civil war among conservatives will be between an enraged rump of die-hard knotheads and a disparate group of reformers. The knotheads believe that Obama’s victory came thanks to the treason of some conservative intellectual elites and McCain’s failure to be more like Reagan, whatever that means 20 years after the Gipper left the White House. Sarah Palin is the standard-bearer for the talk-radio faction within knotheadism, and Mitt Romney will emerge as the GOP establishment’s last stand.
Rod Dreher
Columnist & online editorial page editor –Dallas Morning News
Dreher is supposed to be some kind of Republican guru but the fact that he can say that which is in bold indicates how messed up the Republican party is. The Democratic Party is now 75 years past Franklin Roosevelt and yet it knows what Rooseveltian policies means 75 yeas after Roosevelt left the White House. Indeed, the election of Barak Obama finds a man who will try to re-Roosevelt the American electorate.
How can a Republican guru not know what Reagan means 20 years after he’s left the White House? McCain’s failure in not being enough like Reagan means that McCain was more like Bush 41 & 43 in that McCain was a Big Government welfare / warfare moderate. McCain was not like Reagan because McCain did not believe government was the problem. McCain was not like Reagan because Reagan would never have voted for the government to bail out the mortgage industry to the tune of 2.3 trillion dollars. McCain was not like Reagan because Reagan never would have supported legislation attacking the 1st amendment as McCain did.
The fact that Republican guru’s like Dreher can’t figure out the Reagan means genuine pro free-market, genuine liberty and genuine disgust of big government means the Republican party will be continue to wander in the wasteland until they figure it out.
I actually think Dreher is onto something here. If by “Reaganism” one means genuine championing of liberty, then this is the solution, not the problem, and the GOP should rediscover that heritage. But “Reaganism” is a wax nose today and even Reagan was arguably not a true “Reaganite.” He presided over something like a bailout, am I correct? Ford, maybe? And government spending/deficits increased dramatically under his administration.
Here other GOP problems:
Invoking Reagan’s name or (ever idealized) legacy and muttering some ostensibly conservative shibboleths then denying these things in practice.
Assuming a renewal of conservatism requires a TR or Lincon-esque “leader” to reform and pontificate from the top-down.
A cheerleading party spirit that precludes self-evaluation and correction.
Ignorance of, hostility to, or highly selective reading of historical conservative thought.
Republicans are the party of Lincoln and will continue to wander in the wasteland until they realize the true point of departure is not Reagan (or Lincoln), but the Constitution and the Anglo-Saxon Christian heritage that produced it and these united States.
Distinguish between Reagan’s rhetoric about smaller government and the reality. Then compare that to McCain’s rhetoric. Yeah, there’s a dimes worth of difference, but a dime isn’t worth as much as it used to be.
Might this GOP identity crisis aid the ideological revolution fueled by Ron Paul? None of us cares for a stronger communist party I know, but the demise of the fascist party would be fine with me – another enemy peg for the footstool if you will. If nothing else, I’ll take anything that might cause Christians to quit voting for those chumps.
Hey guys, I understand that the problem with Reagan was that he wasn’t really Reagan, BUT guys like Dreher don’t get that. Guys like Dreher are the very guys who should be championing what Reagan was perceived as being. Instead we get a guy who doesn’t know what Reaganism means to the average joe.
Keep in mind that the Democratic party has no desire to throw Roosevelt overboard 75 years later and yet Republicans have no idea what Reaganism means 20 years later. That is sad.
The reason that is sad is that as long as Republicans keep offering up “me to — Dime store New Dealism” Republicans the Republican party is toast. I remain hopeful that the Republican party will one day yet again serve as a vehicle for the kind of things that anti-federalists like Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Ron Paul stood for.
The reason I refuse to vote Republican is to discipline them … but you only discipline the things that are yours to discipline. I am hopeful that the Republican party will yet wake up and take my discipline seriously so that I might vote for it again.
But as long as it remains the “Stupid Party” they will have to find a different constituency.
Also, touching Reagan we must cut the guy some slack. He never ruled with a Republican Congress and as I recall only had a Republican Senate for the last two years of his administration. If one could have combined the Reagan Presidency with the 1994 Republican Congress, that would have been a thing of beauty.
I know Reagan talked better then he walked, and that the neo-cons captured his administration quickly into his first term but it is difficult to imagine a Republican today who could or would articulate the conservative vision the way Reagan could and did.