President Obama caused a minor stir last month in a speech at the Associated Press luncheon, when he argued, "Ronald Reagan ... could not get through a Republican primary today."
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This sparked some worthwhile discussion, but I've been especially struck by the number of Republicans who agree with the argument.
The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right and become so partisan in recent years that President Ronald Reagan wouldn't even want to be a part of it, former Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel told The Cable.
"Reagan would be stunned by the party today," Hagel said in a long interview in his office at Georgetown University, where he now teaches. He also serves as co-chair of President Barack Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Reagan wanted to do away with nuclear weapons, raised taxes, made deals with congressional Democrats, sought compromises and consensus to fix problems, and surrounded himself with moderates as well as Republican hard-liners, Hagel noted. None of that is characterized by the current GOP leadership, he said.
Hagel added that there were similar divisions in the early 1950s between Eisenhower Republicans and GOP extremists like Joe McCarthy, but the difference is, in 2012, "the extremists are winning."
Remember, Hagel's voting record in the Senate wasn't exactly Olympia Snowe's -- this guy's a conservative from a reliably-"red" state. And yet, he believes Reagan "wouldn't identify with this party."
A few weeks ago, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) said the same thing. What's more, Mike Huckabee said a year ago, "Ronald Reagan would have a very difficult, if not impossible, time being nominated in this atmosphere of the Republican Party." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had a nearly identical take in 2010, arguing Reagan "would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today."
I continue to believe this matters.
As we discussed a while back, Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times, and he supported the precursor to the Buffett Rule. In his first term, Reagan raised taxes when unemployment was nearing 11% -- imagine trying this today -- and proceeded to raise taxes seven out of the eight years he was in office. It's a fact the right finds terribly inconvenient, but "no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people" as Reagan.
Reagan gave amnesty to undocumented immigrants, expanded the size of the federal government, tripled the deficit and added trillions to the debt, bailed out domestic industries, and called for a world without nuclear weapons. Reagan also met with our most hated enemy without preconditions, criticized Israel, and illegally funneled arms to Iran.
And then there's his gubernatorial record: in California, Reagan increased spending, raised taxes, helped create the nation's first state-based emissions standards, signed an abortion-rights bill, and expanded the nation's largest state-based Medicaid program (socialized medicine).
Reagan "could not get through a Republican primary today"? Reagan could not get through a Republican primary without being laughed off the stage today.
And why is this relevant today? For one thing, it's at least interesting to appreciate the fact that Republicans have a religious-like reverence for Reagan, they have no use for his approach to governance.
But more importantly, it should tell the American mainstream something important when the GOP moves so far to the ideological extreme that it's no longer the Party of Reagan.
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Hagel added that there were similar divisions in the early 1950s between Eisenhower Republicans and GOP extremists like Joe McCarthy, but the difference is, in 2012, "the extremists are winning."
Back in McCarthy's day, the moderates still controlled the party throughout the states. Fast forward to now.........there is a bottomless well of crazy from coast to coast, and that is proving impossible to control.
History lesson: In the 50s the division was between Eisenhower Republicans (who, in general, accepted the FDR Consensus) and Robert Taft Republicans -- who wanted to roll it back. Taft supported McCarthy in the way that McConnell supports the Tea Party, anything to hurt the Democrats. ("If one doesn't check out, start another one" was more or less his advice to Tail-Gunner Joe.)
In the Sixties, anti-Communism of the HUAC/McCarthy stripe had become a province of the right (then Southern Segregationist Democrats and Northern, mostly MidWestern Republicans who concocted a 'devil's bargain' on segregation). Most 'mainstream Republicans' and most Northern Democrats paid it lip service, wouldn't oppose it, but considered it a side show. It was the Goldwater Wing that combined the two best -- and Goldwater, regrettably -- he was usually an honorable if wrong man -- voted against the Civil Rights Act, authentically on Constitutional grounds. But this freed the Southerners to slowly gravitate to the Republicans.
Reagan was the heir of the Goldwater movement, plainly on the side of the extremist insurgents against the Eisenhower Republican that Gerald Ford was.In office he may have moved somewhat to the center, but even some of the positions you speak of were not key points in the Conservatism of the era.
The key to today is that the Extremist Reagan has become the 'too moderate for his party' Reagan. (In fact, almost any Republican i grew up with would have been far too moderate for his party, and a Goldwater would have been horrified at the bigotry, homophobia, and slavish religiosity that he so opposed.)
What animal were we again in "The Animal Farm"?
I can only assume the mainstream Republican establishment likes this, because if they didn't, they could fix it fairly easily. If Grover can threaten all the congressmen with killing their election chances, then the R party could do the same to any tea party rigid candidates. I think their hatred for Obama greatly outweighs any urge to have a decent party and do something good for the country.
That's the miracle of St. Ronnie. He is whatever conservatives want him to be, even if he really wasn't.
Dead people are much more adaptable than living ones.
Whenever I bring any of this up to my Reagan-idolizing, ultra-conservative friends, all they do is stutter, their eyes glaze over, and then they go on with their crazypants GOP talking points. I think we should gather together and keep clanging them over the head with these facts. Maybe one day they will see the light...
They live in darkness.
Some folks worship Jesus and Reagan, and don't agree with either one.
I've thought for years that one of the biggest problems facing the country (at a time when we have no shortage of big problems to face) is the fact that the GOP is no longer a governing party. Time was when the parties could trade the White House every few years, and the Republic would survive. Not any longer. Bush II was an astonishing disaster, but any successor from the current Republican party would be much worse.
Couldn't agree more . You weren't happy when a Republican got in but you would think oh well maybe in four years.
We hated Nixon....
But EPA , OSHA ,ERA, Endangered Species Act , just to mention a few items .
Things that benefited all Americans
Now the prospect of a Republican Congress President and scares the Sh*t out of me .
Look what Republican super-majorities have done to Florida and Wisconsin with the plague of Scotts. Scott Walker and Rick Scott have showed us what would happen
And now, all of those are on the Republican chopping block - except for the ERA, whose momentum was stopped in its tracks by the LDS Church announcing the Sunday before the scheduled Yes vote in the Utah Legislature that IT was opposed to the ratification of the ERA. Guess how the vote went that week? Backwards, indeed, would be our direction if Republicans win again in any legislative or executive body.
They're already laid the path for this reality-free thinking with their love for a religion that preaches poverty, yet housed in mighty houses and with massive wealth - why not politics?
Reagan would have a difficult time in the current political climate but consider how formative his remark about government was:
That pretty much sums up the current Tea Party, Libertarian and GOP ideology doesn't it?
Yep, which is why the contrast is so powerful between the Reagan worship and the Reagan practice.
'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
This is not original with Regan. It was spoken by John Wayne in a Republic Pictures film of about 1938.
"I paid for this microphone." is also from a 30's movie.
"Honey, I forgot to duck" after the assassination attempt is from boxer Jack Dempsey.
We may as well face the fact that the Republican Party has died and is now replaced by a bunch of wanna-be Hitlers. Unfortunately, our standards are so low when it comes to Representatives that Greed and Ego are having a good old party at our expense. They will let you die instead of taking you to the Doctors. They will fill your food with so many chemicals and hormones, that if that doesn't kill you they will then, take away your ability to pay for gas to find work. They will boo at you when you have risked your life for them fighting in a war that they helped fabricate. They will take away your rights to control the amount of mouths you have to feed. They will make you shave your heads so that they can wear your hair. They want to destroy the very ground beneath our feet. This is not the Republican Party we grew up with this is a Halloween Party where the evil spirits cannot disguise themselves any longer. Their masks and their ignorance has been exposed for all to see. Reagan is rolling over in his grave.
"Hitlers"? Color me surprised Angel! Are you not the same person who tells other posters to be of good cheer?
I know they just make me so mad sometimes, I'm sorry I couldn't think of another wanna-be person maybe Bush would have been better. Sorry. I'll try to be patient. Gosh, I kinda knew that was the wrong name when I wrote it.
For all who think the Republican Party today is somehow radically different from that of yesteryear, allow me to provide a bit of historical "updating."
My little slogan "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies," was taught to me by my great-grand-uncle Jim McKelvey, who worked for Harry Truman from 1920-1953. Republicans were always this way.
Go read the history of the Roosevelt Administration. They were in complete opposition just as they are today. Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time" gives all kinds of examples.
The Republican "moderates" everyone pays such honor to were minor exceptions, who almost always voted the way Olympia Snowe does, i.e., what they said and how they voted were not the same.
There's only ever been two good Republicans: Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and both were opposed by the main leadership of the party during their time in office, and Roosevelt only got into office by the accident of McKinley's death, after the GOP establishment thought they had "neutered" him by making him VP.
Yes, but when does the general public figure this out? If the GOP keeps sliding toward the cliff, maybe someone will notice that we need a new party.
We really could use a proper debate on taxation, entitlements, etc. but with deadlock we can't move. How 'bout fiscal conservatives with no social agenda? Gee, what would that look like...
How 'bout fiscal conservatives, period? What passes for "fiscal conservatism" (tax cuts and more tax cuts, especially for the top 0.01%) would never have been recognized by that name forty years ago.
It would look like Meghan McCain and her colleagues. Intelligent, moderate, well-intentioned Republicans who see the problems facing our country, who may differ in their opinions and approach from the Democrats as to how they could be remedied, but are nonetheless open to discussion and willing to compromise on solutions that would move the country forward. A Republican Party that eschews the Tea Party radicalism.
The 'general public' doesn't need to 'figure this out.' This is not a crisis of the people. It's a crisis for the Republican Party. The country will survive and continue on with, or without, the Republican Party. The question is, "When will the Republican electorate figure this out?" Over the course of our history, political parties have come and gone from the political landscape. We may well be witnessing the beginnings of the fracturing and eventual dissolution of an American institution. Another question to ponder is, "Who/what would rise up to take their place?"
As long The 'general public' doesn't need to 'figure this out.' This is not a crisis of the people. It's a crisis for the Republican Party.as Rush and Roger are calling the shots, "moderates" aren't going anywhere in the PoG.
Maybe I've just got it all wrong, the GOP holds him up as a demi-gawd because they lack the courage and conviction to do what their demi-gawd did! Maybe? They're not hard to the right, they're just super humble!
They should be known as the "Mulligan" party, since they want a do over the minute they lose an election. It's all about winning with them; not governing, not workable solutions, not cooperation.
"...it's at least interesting to appreciate the fact that Republicans have a religious-like reverence for Reagan, they have no use for his approach to governance."
They also have no use for that bible they thump on....
Theres only one answer to all the gridlock deadlock or whatever you want to call it.And that is to much money flowing to the corrupted politicians.They have a dicked job with excellent benefits when they're in office and when they leave.How many jobs are there that only require you to work about a month or less per year,be taken to dinner and drinks or play golf four or five times a week and pay's $174,000 a year plus all you can rake in from lobbyists. Even if we vote them out of office,there is a lobbyist with a bag full of money just waiting to corrupt the next one. And chances are 100% that it will happen.
Why are surprised by this. The "moderate" conservative Republicans have always had to backtrack on their "my way, or the high way" economic ideals only to be forced back to the moderate economic center of practical solutions depending on the current economic climate - and not any one size fits all approach! Ronald Reagan, that now noted radical liberal, certainly understood this before the Republican Party fell off the cliff. In every presidential election, there's always the quote "this is the most important election of our times" that gets tossed about. This time, it has a dead serious implication. If the republicans sweep in November, our country will never be the same once they impose their radical beliefs on us only to find out, after it's too late, just how misguided those "ideals" were. Supply-side economics should have taught us that. With Romney leading in some pols, it may be time to hold our breath (or to rally the left-wing non-voters TO VOTE!)
I always do love this whole comparison between Reagan and the current GOP. They claim that anyone even remotely moderate or liberal is a RINO (Republican in name only) but they don't seem to notice that Reagan was moderate. He was Conservative, sure. But he wasn't a lunatic about it. He recognised that compromise in government is needed to get things done, rather than adopting the "you do it my way or you shut up" mentality that the modern-day GOP has.
The Grand Old Party is no longer the party of Reagan. They're the part of Limbaugh.
Being the party of Reagan never was. The conservatives of the day did not consider Reagan one of them. Today's conservatives just consider him less so now and comparatively liberal.
they worship Jesus like they do Reagan. By ignoring everything they ever said or did.
Reagan is in good company: they also have a religious reverence for some Palestinian dude 2000 years ago, but have no use for his social policies either.
Ever notice that Republicans only feel safe telling the truth when they're no longer running for office? Hagel, Bob Barr, Alan Simpson, etc.
What a crock of utter and complete bull@!$%#. dems get more and more off to the absolute kook left all the while whining about how "extreme" anybody normal is.
I agree with about all of the posts here BUT if you take the long view Republicans are winning. Here we are talking about good old moderate Ronald Reagan. When he was president, he was considered a throwback conservative. The country is drifting rightward. Obama is going to just barely win the presidency, because Romney is such a (eww) but I predict a Republican-controlled House and Senate. Scott Walker is going to win his recall. Midwestern Republican governors are going to retain their seats. We are going to let our infrastructure crumble. The Republican base is passionate and the Democratic base is still angry that they have a president who doesn't represent them.
Take a longer view. The Republican Party is pinning all it's hopes on a shrinking demographic: elderly white men. It's only hope is to expand its base, but that would mean jettisoning the mental habits of four-plus decades. Long-term, they can't win, which is where the Citizens United decision and voter suppression come in, of course; but unless they overtly and completely go Nazi very quickly they have to start losing more and more as the white vote alone becomes increasingly incapable of carrying Republicans to victory.
FYI, it was never Reagan's party, it always was Regan's party.
"First, let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration....
...A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not." --Reagan, addressing the nation after the congressional hearings on Iran-Contra
Contrast Reagan's acceptance of the facts and reality with:
"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities" --Ron Susskind quoting Karl Rove.
This is the difference of the world we now live in.
They will never get it RIGHT. There are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Egos are imploding all over the place. The Tea Party was in my opinion a failed attempt at resurrecting a Party that never really ever made it up off the ground. If Regan is all they got then Regan is all they will ever have. It is like comparing a Fox to a Wolf, the Wolf will win every time without even lifting a paw.Wolves are great dancers too.