Posted by
Sanity 102 on Sunday, October 29, 2006 6:12:16 PM
First let me qualify what I am about to post with a clear understanding that I LIKE Ronald Reagan. As a leader, he gave to America something it hadn’t had for 20 years…pride in our nation and an unapologetic belief in our people.
But so much has been attributed to his “conservatism” that no politician, certainly not the one who now occupies the White House can ever hope to live up to his standard.
And it is tearing the GOP and this country apart.
For the record, Ronald Reagan, NEVER secured the borders…in fact his immigration law was a REAL amnesty. And yes, illegal immigration was a problem even back then. Maybe we weren’t too concerned with terrorists, but drug runners and criminals used the Mexican border with the same ease that Michigan citizens cross the Northern border to do their shopping, and unlike now where Welfare has a 5 year moratorium, back then, hundreds of thousands of illegals using E.R.s and getting food stamps begat generations of system abusers.
But Reagan had been governor of California—and he knew that most people do not consider the guy who mows his lawn or the woman who cleans his house as one of “those illegals” and trying to cut the flow of their good, cheap help would not be appreciated; would, in fact, cost him politically.
I am really, really sorry but this is STILL the political reality today. The Hispanic population in America is not only large and getting bigger; but the possibility of turning them into the new minority voting block for Democrats scares and SHOULD scare any thinking, realistic GOP politician. Like the Blacks who knee-jerk vote for the gravy train party (Democrat), Hispanics will turn away from their natural Conservative tendency and join the group that shows some appreciation for their concerns.
But do we want people we have to “bribe” to join us? So says the Reaganites, Buchananites, Libertarians, Evangelical Christians who demand “payment” for their own support of the GOP.
And here’s another political reality: if immigration WAS the big issue the above groups insist that it was going to be this election, Santorum should be the hero of the GOP and sailing right through his senate race and it should be the Senate, not the House in trouble. But of course, like it or not, the closing the borders is NOT on the priority list of concern of MOST voters—no matter how many times the “national security” tag is attached to it.
Did Reagan bring down the Soviet Union and end the Cold war? Yes…and no. Most historians, Left AND Right agree that communism as practiced by the Soviets was simply not working. Economically, the Soviets could not compete with America and as Reagan himself often mentioned, he believed that the Soviets was a nation on the brink of financial ruin. Reagan pushed—and Gorbachev was looking for an excuse to dismantle the financially crumbling empire. As Reagan’s icon predecessor JFK stared down a Soviet that didn’t want to face mutual nuclear destruction, Reagan called on a hand he believed held no aces and could not up the pot.
And after 9/11, can anyone seriously believe that we can in-your-face “call” on the hand of Canada and Mexico by closing our borders when these two hold the “aces” of being our number one and number two trading partners and suppliers of oil or the hands held by Muslim backed Iran and China backed North Korea?
Morally, second time married, ex-Democrat Reagan talked a good pro-life talk, but he never addressed pro-life groups or pushed the pro-life agenda—and has the distinction of appointing the great pro-abortionist Sandra Day O’Connor to the SCOTUS. To be fair, Reagan never claimed to be “Christian”. He never sought to change the courts and their grab for more power.
But the very people who bash Bush over his Miers’ nomination and his inability to get an marriage amendment bill through forget that Reagan was Hollywood royalty—and his morals were not as stringent as Bush’s OR the Christian Rights.