The summer of 1976 witnessed the celebration of our Nation’s Bicentennial. It was a hot and memorable summer. I was seventeen years of age and I was about to begin my senior year of high school. It was the dawn of my awareness of the world beyond my personal horizon. Unlike most teenagers, I had become consumed with the race between President Ford and Governor Reagan concerning the Republican Nomination for President of the United States. Ford had never faced or won a National election as President. He had been a moderate in Congress that leaned heavily on the liberal Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party for support in his appointment as Vice President, even appointing Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President when he took office as President.
Reagan represented the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He tried to appease the liberals by stating that Pennsylvania Republican Senator Schweiker would be his Vice President nominee. The fight between the liberals and the conservatives of the Party was out in the open for all to see. Rockefeller Republicans despised Reagan as an outsider. Rockefeller Republicans were untrusted elites. There was a raucous floor fight for the nomination. While Reagan lost that battle by a few votes, his impromptu concession speech won the war leading to his 1980 win of the Presidency. But Ford lost the general election in 1976.
The Rockefeller Republicans and the Reagan Republicans enjoyed a brief armistice from 1980 until 1988 after Reagan selected George H.W. Bush as his Vice President. Bush I used the conservative credibility gained from Reagan to follow him as President for one term. After the “read my lips” fiasco the divide between the liberals and conservative continued to widen. No longer are the liberals in the party called Rockefeller Republicans. Today they are more commonly known as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). The populist/conservative movement in the Party is no longer known as Reagan Republicans. They are MAGA (Make America Great Again). And this divide continues to widen under these new names. The dynamic and propelling force of the Republican Party has been and continues to be the Reagan Republicans now known as MAGA. Not the firmly entrenched elites of the RINOs.
But what were the policies of Ronald Reagan? He was clear that government should be restrained and regulations should be limited. Reagan advocated for a reduction in taxes. He called for a strong military that needed to refrain from military incursions without just cause. Reagan held a strong and abiding line concerning foreign affairs and even called on Gorbachev to tear down the East German wall. He encouraged capital growth. Ronald Reagan inherited an anemic economy and sparked an incredible growth that continued beyond his administration. But what truly set Reagan apart was his ability to speak to the American people and how to frame the question “are you better off now than four years ago.”
Rockefeller Republicans and RINOs assert no vision other than ad hominem attacks against Reagan and now Trump because their powerful coalition with the Democrats is at risk. This coalition is always rapidly abandoned by the Democrats at the first opportunity like Biden’s poll numbers after his last debate. Bush II effectively feigned conservatism. Witness the Lemming Stream Media soft and kind treatment of Cain and Romney with their campaigns for the Republican nomination as President and how rapidly it fell apart when they actually received the Party’s nomination.
What the Rockefeller Republicans failed to learn in 1976, simply put, is that without the support of conservatives, they have no one to rely on accept the kind and gentle claws of the Democrats. Witness the failure of Ford to win a national election. Attaining and maintaining power at all costs by RINOs offers no appeal to the American people because it offers nothing more than but the promise of the status quo for the elite. The current call of RINOs to support Kamala is with the bankrupt hope that their political power will miraculously reappear in four years because of their showing the left how reasonable and malleable they think they are.
The hot and tumultuous summer of 2024 heralded my 65th birthday and has drawn to a close. Trump has won the Republican nomination much to the chagrin of the RINOS. He has fought the political prosecutions and law fare of the Democrats and the RINOs. He’s been shot. He’s faced the scrutiny of the hostile media. All and sundry criticize him for his tweets. But you know what has not been challenged as wrong? His actual policies. Kamala is now even adopting many of his proposals as her own. If you believe her now, she is frack baby frack and build the wall. All these claimed new conversions of her will disappear as quickly as a hole in the water when the hand is withdrawn. She has admitted as much when she says her values have not changed. The lessons for the RINOs are the same for the Rockefeller Republicans in 1976: you will lose without conservative support. Ford needed Reagan. Reagan did not need Ford
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