REAGAN WAS DELUSIONAL
In a
recent MuthsTruths.com blog post, I wrote that conservatives in Nevada should
put a slate of conservative GOP candidates together to challenge Gov. Brian
Sandoval (R&R-Partners) and the establishment slate of moderate Republican
candidates he’s assembling for the six constitutional offices next year.
That
elicited this overwrought email from longtime Republican activist Eleanor Mills
of Las Vegas:
“You are delusional! Your ideas for running someone against Gov.
Sandoval will not be successful. If it
was we would have a Democrat Gov. elected in 2014.”
Well,
I guess conservative Ronald Reagan was delusional, too! Because if memory serves correctly, it was the
Republican icon who challenged moderate, establishment Republican President
Gerald Ford in the 1976 GOP primary.
And
indeed, that challenge surely contributed to the Democrats’ general election
victory of the hapless Jimmy Carter in November. However, it also set the stage for Reagan’s
successful campaign in 1980 and his historical economy-saving/commie-defeating
eight-year presidency.
So sometimes
you have to take one step back in order to take two steps forward.
It
should also be noted that it wasn’t just Reagan himself who lost and then won
big; modern-day conservatism was born in ’76 and grew during the Reagan years
into a national movement that exists to this day in the form of the tea party
and liberty movements.
And
rather than fading away, despite Harry Reid’s deepest wish to the contrary, conservatives
are becoming even more emboldened, if not outright brazen.
About
a dozen years ago, frustrated fiscal conservatives launched the Club for
Growth, an organization dedicated to running conservative challengers against
moderate GOP incumbents in Republican-friendly districts. After a couple of initial stumbles out of the
gate, CFG is now wildly successful and greatly feared by Gumby Republicans in
Congress.
But
even relatively dependable conservatives are no longer safe from Reagan-like
primary challenges. Indeed, conservative
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) - ACU Lifetime Rating: 93 - is being challenged by Liz
Cheney, the former VP’s daughter, primarily because he just doesn’t rock the
boat enough.
And
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – ACU Lifetime Rating: 90 - is
now under political assault from the right and is in serious jeopardy of being
tossed overboard in next year’s GOP primary by a Kentucky businessman with no
prior electoral experience.
You
see, conservatives are no longer just looking for someone who will press the
right button and go home. They want
someone who will raise a bloody stink before pressing the right button, and then
go on the road and on TV and on radio and on the web to fire up the troops. Like Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz.
And
anyone who thinks Brian Sandoval runs with that illustrious conservative crowd is
the one who’s delusional.
NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS
Only
thing worse than a liberal policy is a Republican compromise. Read all about it here
Former
commander of the USS Cole says to fund JLENS, not the sequestration beast. Click here
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“I
think you’re going to see the waning of the tea party and Ron Paul people.” – UNLV poli-sci teacher David Damore doing his
best Harry Reid imitation, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/22/13
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