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Past deaf to Reagan listenings led to GOP defeat
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What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. - The Preacher
The statement from Ecclesiastes 1:9 is quite possibly the most conservative sentence ever written. I guess the former Governor of Florida together with the vast majority of elected Republicans over the past 13 years never heeded its wisdom nor did enough listening and learning recently over te
Yet, in the wake of our past two election year losses self-identified "fiscal conservatives", moderates and mavericks inside the beltway have sought to pin those Big Spending, Iraq War and Economic bailout/recession-driven losses on their favorite religious right/social conservative bogeymen, including Ronald Reagan.
The latest to join the gratuitous "insult conservatives lecture circuit" now known as the "National Council For A New America" (NCNA) - sounds a lot like President Obama's "fundamentally change" and "re-make" America, doesn't it, but I digress - is Jeb Bush:
My reason for being here is that I think ideas have consequences and we that ought to have a thoughtful discussion about those ideas. And from the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past -- because, you know, things do ebb and flow, and it's nice to remember the good old days when the good guys, if you're a conservative, were in power. If you're a liberal, you remember nostalgically when they were in power. None of that matters right now. What we need to do is to listen, to learn, and then there will be a new generation of leaders that will lead. Listen, learn, lead.
Ok, so what doesn't matter are lessons from how conservatives won power? What does matter is that we "listen, learn and lead"? It competes for vagueness with Obama's "hope and change", but unfortunately, the concrete result of the NCNA's three l's would be a surrender to Obama.
Heck, they can't stop praising the President in public. Our Minority "Whip" never misses a chance to flog Obama with his feather-made lash every chance he gets, and now his Sunshine State partner in Reagan nostalgia-killing offers his obeisance:
The context that I was talking about the past was really candidates running for office that have kind of a nostalgic view of the world. That's a perilous thing. And I think to President Obama, candidate Obama's credit, he waged a 2008 campaign that was relevant for people's aspirations, whether you agreed with him or not, it was not a look back, it was a look forward, and so our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia for the good old days in the messaging and, you know, it's great, but it doesn't draw people towards your cause.
Obama looked back for two years in full public view as he trashed the framers of the Constitution for not empowering government to re-distribute wealth; President Reagan for "giving" tax cuts to the rich; and Jeb's brother for every wrong thing under the sun.
Guess Jeb was too busy listening and learning elsewhere so he could lead us to a non-Reagan influenced democratic-lite future as seekers of complimentary Bob Michaelism passes for the congressional tennis courts.
Let's look at some recent past learning and listenings that didn't consult Reagan's conservative principles and policies, shall we?
Bush 41 listened and learned from congressional democrats and led lip readers to higher taxes. Newt Gingrich listened and learned from President Clinton and led JC Watts to the woodshed for daring to call Rev. Jesse Jackson (The First lady's guest at the State of the Union) a race pimp hustler and shakedown artist.
Bush 43 and Tom DeLay listened and learned from Senator Kennedy and led us to spend like Democrats. Eric Cantor listened and learned to who knows what (Obama and Geithner?) and led scores of Republicans to vote for a 90% tax on AIG employee insurance commission compensation.
Finally, Governor Bush himself listened and learned and opposed drilling for oil off his state's coast. Yet, Jeb has the audacity to say:
"You can't beat something with nothing. And the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that."
The "it" the Democrats have that you demand we respect, while seeking new things under the sun, is the oldest evil thing in the history of man. One that Whittaker Chambers (pictured above) noted as a "Witness" against that evil when he thought he was joining the losing side against communism:
It is not new. It is, in fact, man's second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: "Ye shall be as gods." It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man's relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.
Afterwards, then Democrat Ronald Reagan looked back and listened to Whittaker Chambers. Aren't we glad he didn't eschew the wisdom of the past like Jeb Bush want's to?
No Jeb, YOU certainly can't beat something with nothing. So get out of our way. We have something all right, and it is what Reagan handed down: conservative principles and policies that work and when advocated in an unabashed and unapologetic way, lead to conservative Republican majorities.
There have been some suggestions in some circles that the outrage being expressed by many conservatives at the NCNA approach and statements by Jeb and others is misplaced, that Jeb doesn't mean the same insults to Reagan's legacy as the Frums and Brooks did, despite using the same words or that we have been fooled by misleading Drive-by headlines.
Poppycock!
I denounced this beltway concoction on the first day I learned of it and read their mission statement, one of the most gross of which was this adoption of the entitlement language of the left:
Healthcare: Building a 21st Century, Patient-Centered System
No one doubts that our nation’s health care system is in need of reform, but we must strike the right balance that builds on what works and fixes what is broken. All Americans deserve access to high-quality, affordable care.
Yeah, just like we all "deserved" to own homes we couldn't afford.
No, we aren't fooled by liberal media and we aren't pining for some reincarnation of Reagan, Regan and Baker either. What we want is for our center-right nation to be governed by like-minded conservatives like we once were, for too brief of a moment. We want policies that don't destroy the currency and threaten our prosperity and that of the next generations. We want policies that don't invite aggression against weakness and we want courts that umpire rather than insist on pitching.
Yes, we need new ideas and policies to address health care and other issues, we don't get any that will work without listening and learning to the likes of Reagan.
Postscript
I have been writing Minority Reports since 2006 and if we listen to the voices of Jeb and and the NCNA, I will be writing them the rest of my life.
Adam Graham recently said it best when he suggested that the dangerous voices in the GOP are those of the "good ole boys" rather than the grassroots. I just wonder if some recent grass roots have become too chummy inside the beltway. Rush Limbaugh has said that one reason he never considered broadcasting from The District is so that he would not be inhibited in Truth Detection due to friendships with those he covered.
I found it interesting today that Rush, a long-time friend of the Bush family (after they reached out to him after he backed Pat Buchanan soon after Bush 41's tax hike broken promise) started out the show defending Jeb over the misleading headline, but then went on to refute everything Jeb said.
[Richard "Pilgrim" Lucy contributed to this article.]
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Originally published @ The Minority Report, where all for verification links may be accessed
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