GOP Needs to Forget Reagan: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

wsj.com:

The Republican Party's unending tale of woe sounds like a friend's account of sitting through the New York Yankees' 22-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians at the new Yankee Stadium April 18.

In the 14-run second inning, three Indians hit home runs into the right-field seats, including a grand-slam. One ball hit a woman in the head because the fans had stopped watching the game. A nasty fight broke out in the stands. After the fourth inning (16-2), the subway trains taking Yankee faithful back to Manhattan were packed. Republicans know the feeling.

Read the whole story: wsj.com

Comments

[rf dude]

If they (Republicans) forget Reagan, whata they got?

Nixon? (naww, too much baggage there, even for Republicans)

You're back to Eisenhower, then - but he was B-TV, no video clips.

Fast forward to Bush I (vomiting on Japanese Prime Minister - yuk) or

Bush II (crapping on the whole world - double yuk).

Sorry, Reagan's all they got...
--

[mero909]

Eisenhower was a decent President for at least one term. His second term was more him playing golf than actually governing.

[MissFancyPants]

Oh, dontya go bashin' on hero Dutch now.

Although I wish the GOP would quit calling him Saint Ronnie. I'm of the true evangelical faith and we hold no truck with sainthood.

But how cantchya not love Ronald? He knew how to shake things up. Always goin' around the constitution and playing the victim when he was caught. He was a "real" American, by golly, in the best republican tradition.

The GOP knows that the best way to win is to pick a semi-r e t a r d ed yet charismatic and telegenic character who can't read above the 8h grade level but can deliver zingers on cue. If they have Allshammers, or fake Texas accents or think god told them to build pipelines all the better.

Then all that's needed is a little hatemongerin, racebatin' and fearmongerin'. It helps if ya have an e v i l empire or at least a handful of t e r r orists. Right now we just have to make do with a popular president. But were workin' on that. We be goin' round the country listenin' to "real" Americans about new things to f e a r and h a t e. Because we care.

Yup. Yup. Never flinch.

[theclosetconservative2]

You might consider putting the koolaid pitcher down. http://theclosetconservative.com

[TheImpaler]

"The GOP knows that the best way to win is to pick a semi-r e t a r d ed yet charismatic and telegenic character who can't read above the 8h grade level but can deliver zingers on cue. If they have Allshammers, or fake Texas accents or think god told them to build pipelines all the better." - I just love this paragraph! It is so on target!!! Just love it!

[theclosetconservative2]

Jackalheadedgod said Reagan was present for the collapse of the Soviet Union and that the collapse og the Soviet Union had nothing to do with his policies. Pretty much the narrative of CBS News. But if the Soviet Union was going to fall under its own weight, you wouldn't have known it by their earlier stories. This is why Gorbachev tried to get Reagan to abandon SDI. The Reagan military buildup led to the Soviet collpase. They couldn't compete. Sorry Jack, the Soviet Union wouldn't have collapsed during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter or Walter Mondale. It finally collapsed just after Reagan's Vice President came into office, and the reason is obvious. Cheers. http://theclosetconservative.com

[3dtrix]

I once saw a magician saw a pretty girl in half - really. It was obvious. Then he put her back together. Magic!

[Mikeeee]

SDI, remember it well. It truly represents raygun and the repub thinking. Don't do something that requires courage and thoughtfulness, like getting rid of nuclear weapons. Lets build a defense system. So we can continue to bully, terrorize and hold the nuclear threat over the worlds head. That is, until someone comes up with a way to defeat the defense system by stealth technology or other means.
Such a huge waste of resources better spent petty things like maybe, health care, poverty, hungry children, add to the list as you see fit.
Always been a mystery to me that an outfit which puts themselves forward as being better able to defend America (implying they're the only ones with enough courage) and preaches abstinence so much, lacks the courage to truly make America safe from a nuclear threat by working towards world wide nuclear abstinence.

[DailyElitist]

I'm curious as to why you think it was a good thing that the Soviet Union collapsed. By all informed accounts, it was a catastrophe of immense proportions.

[3dtrix]

Neocons are oligarchists incognito...

[Biyobi]

Reagan was an orthodox hand-puppet for the GOP.

[NeverRepublican]

We can thank reagan for:

The "dont' trust" government attitude...(yet repubs run for office)...

Coperate welfare...

The hatred of unions...

Breaking down the seperation of church and state...

The lie that the re-dork-lican party is small government...

AND...when he was governor of California he decimated the higher education system!

The only people who praise this guy is the same audiance who tune into fox news for hannity, and beck.

[Provit2me]

Reagan couldn't even say the word AIDS let along get people - straight or gay - assistance. That is one of the crosses he carries into history. The trickle down wealth theory is his other. Anything else that he did for the good is over shadowed by those two issues. He was a cruel and vandictive person (period).

[Mikeeee]

You're making him sound like some kind of repub despot who like nixon before him didn't like or trust the American people, because he knew what they needed and wanted better than they did. With that attitude I wonder why the repub party didn't choose him as their presidential candidate..Wait! never mind.

[eugenegerard]

Every major problem this country is dealing with today can be traced back to the incompetant Ronald Reagan. Reaganomics and trickle down economics has bleeded our wealth dry. The enegy initiative started by Jimmy Carter would have stopped two wars. Reagan stopped that.The destruction of the unions and middle class started with Reagan. The outsourcing of our country's wealth to foreign investors started with Reagan. The moving of our industries off shore was Reagan.
I could never understand how the generation that saved this country in WWII could vote for this useless &^^%%$. I always felt he was a traitor to America. Still do. He has been outclassed by the present Repugs and Bush enablers in the traitor category.
There are timelines posted on the internet of the DAILY corruption and decisions of the Reagan administration. It is incredible that people today think this guy was a good president. We had a country before Reagan. Our kids had a future. Families needed only ONE bread winner to survive. Now if both parents don't hold down multiple jobs (if you can find one) you go belly up.
I hold nothing but complete disdain for everything Republican and everything Reagan.

[greatlardini]

The worst president ever. Bar none.

[Puffin16]

I'd second he is second worse, next to Dubya.

[JRBourbeau]

I agree with what several others have posted: Huffinton Post, this is a misleading headline. A decent article I suppose, but your headline misses the point of the article.

On a side note, I think Reagan was a bad president.

[BartLA]

Reagan's policies were horrible for the economy and the environment.

But the GOP has turned him into a saint because of his "morning in America" commercial persona.

By all means, the GOP should hold him up as a god to which no other Republican candidate can ever measure up. It's a wonderful winning strategy. Keep at it.

[TJCole]

The GOP may need to forget Reagan for their own good, but I wish even more the corporate Democrats controlling the White House, would stop inflicting his Trickle Down Economics as we see now, as Geithnerism..!

[jeliz]

They also need to forget the Bush brand. Jeb will never make it to the White House with his history and his family tree.

[Mikeeee]

Daddy bush should never have made it to the white house either, but if you recall...

[TheImpaler]

I think they, and us as well, need to remember it, for what a catastrophe it was!

[Jackalheadedgod]

Your headline is a little misleading as the writer seems to be saying that the GOP's salvation lies with ronnie and mommy with a little Jack Kemp thrown in. Of course it doesn't matter because he barely makes the argument and who cares anyway when the wolf is at the door. As it is right now the GOP is on life support and going down fast. We must not let our guard down and we must guard against hubris and watch our step. The people are in no mood for shenanigans.

Cheers,
Jack

[SecondBase]

The Republicans would be much better off if they forgot Reagan... and tried remembering Lincoln.

[19iowa62]

WSJ is pretty generous with the 31% Republican party idenification polling. All polls show anywhere from 18-25%. Ref: Nate Silver at 538.com

[GrowBag]

New AP poll has Republican party identification at 18%.

http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/pdf/AP-GfK_Poll_Topline_April_2009.pdf

[whatthel]

They don't let the facts get in the way.

[littlepuffycloud]

Rupert never worries about facts or the truth.

[Witkacy]

This Henninger has his head up his behind - "Don't panic, stay within your game, play to your strengths." After the Bush administration spent years flouting our laws, violating our civil liberties, jumping heedlessly into military conflicts, and spending money hand-over-fist, Henninger counsels the Repugs to "stay in their game"? The GOP can _say_ "reduce spending" - talk is cheap - but obviously they can't do it. Business in D.C. won't just stop because some dogmatic Repug is making a show of principled parsimony to his crazy constituents: lobbyists will ply their trade in Washington, will induce pols to spend, etc...

[theclosetconservative2]

Republicans need to seel the conservative platform, not apologize for their existence. Low taxes, strong dollar, and strong defense are ideas one doesn't have to be sorry for. http://theclosetconservative.com

[SecondBase]

I disagree.

I think there's only one thing the American public wants to hear from the Republican party at this time - the full, complete and unequivocal acceptance of responsibility for all the many things they did in the past eight years which brought immense and grave harm to the nation, and, in addition to that honest acceptance of personal accountability, the public commitment to work with the Democratic party in order to try and repair the damage done.

[vincent1]

Ah, but herein lies the rub - Bush Republicans were not, nor were they ever, conservatives. So, with the Republican brand so intertwined with the last eight years of Bush rule, it really makes them hypocrites to try to seal a platform of low taxes (for the wealthy), a stong dollar, or a strong defense (I assume you mean military) since they ruined the last two and "trickle-down" has been proven NOT to work.

[3dtrix]

Except that low taxes are a euphemism for social Darwinism. And isn't it funny how those who deny evolution are all over Darwin in the economic jungle? And they wonder why we laugh.

Strong defense - I've got your strong defense right here - did you know the Pentagon has multiple classifications for what would remain after a given intensity of nuclear attack - from mere ruins to fine dust? Me personally, I'd be content with somewhere in between debris and gravel. Madness...