The End Of The Karl Rove Death Grip Signals A Reagan Renaissance

reagan was dogshit, amnesty for illegals? no thanks, deport em.

tsk tsk tsk..

Reagan was not perfect, and did many things we Conservatives not always agreed with.. Such as amnesty for illegals, and raising taxes at the wrong time, even if Congress/Tip O’Neil promised 3 dollars in cuts to govt spending, for every 1 dollar in raised taxes, etc.. But the overall leadership direction, accomplishments, achievements, due to his ideals, values, and core conservative economic, social, and political principles were never compromised, and have been proven an incontrovertible success, as the record of evidence shows.

By the time of Reagan’s re-election in November of 1984, interest rates were down more than a full 9 points from 21.5% down to 12%. The unemployment rate that had peaked at 9.6% under Carter, stood at 7.5%.

By the time President Reagan left office in 1989 the unemployment rate was down to 5.5%. And inflation under Carter, aka stagflation.. by 1984, President Reagan’s re-election year, inflation had dropped like a rock from 13.5% in 1980 under the Carter’s tax and spend policies, to 4.3% under President Reagan pro-free market supply side capitalist conservative economic recovery policies.

Not to mention his defeating Communist Russia/the USSR, aka the evil empire, which was not by going along with the standard status quo of Detente’, but by an aggressive Foreign policy that accelerated their demise, economically, politically, and militarily. It’s called the Reagan Doctrine.

Ignorance, stupidity, and delusional unintelligence is a treatable affliction you know..

You should try using more mature intelligent thoughts when trying to communicate.. That is if you are even capable of such a concept.

Your liberal denigrating tactics gives you away..

In 8 years he never proposed a balanced budget. He campaigned on reducing the size of government, cutting cabinet level agencies. Instead, he left office with a larger government than he started…with more non-military employees and an EXTRA cabinet position. I know its easy to forget the details of the Reagan years…since they are clouded in the fond memories and convenient mythology…but the truth is not so convenient.

I’ve been depressed since election day, but now see a faint glimmer of hope. I voted for Gary Johnson as I knew Obama would take my state (Ma,) I voted for a third party. The Republicrats are destroying this country. I’ve got dual citizenship and am seriously considering jumping ship, I don’t want my 10 year old child to have to bailout this sinking boat. Or any child for that matter. Too painful to watch them become slaves to the federal debt quagmire. The questions is, can these Reagan inspired pols inspire the electorate? In time? Serious reflection on the part of the GOP is in order. Take a page from Ron Paul and lean toward liberty. Away from servitude.

I also voted for Johnson for the same reason. I live in Maryland, it will always go democrat. Never felt Romney had any small government credentials although certainly would have preferred him to Obama. The article is a good one, Bush was no conservative. We need to elect more small government conservatives in the house, senate and have already had success with a number of State Governors. It will take a number of elections to change the current path.

I also voted for Johnson, I’d love to see the Republican Party take on a Libertarian slant. I’m not as optimistic as the author however.

How have you been in servitude under the Obama administration? Just curious.

An interesting if particularly myopic read. The problem with the so-called Reagan Renaissance is not war of ideas within the GOP, but rather, is a much broader problem of demographics. In short, the Reagan coalition simply does not exist anymore, demoted to a vocal but politically insubstantial minority by a far more diverse and left-leaning electorate. For all the furor over his presidency, Obama has been decidedly moderate; even his cornerstone domestic policy achievement is just the health care plan that the Heritage Foundation concocted, angering liberals as much as it angers Republicans who once supported an individual mandate. Obama’s lasting impact, therefore, is not quite his policy, but his campaign: he’s dramatically shifted the electorate. Winning with only 39% of the white vote has severely damaged the future chances of the GOP unless they change accordingly to broaden their appeal to a significantly larger portion of the non-white community, a feat Reagan could not accomplish, mostly because his ideas hold very little appeal for the dramatically more diverse community. The percentage of the white vote that Romney got was a winning strategy when H. W. Bush won; it was an absolute victory when Reagan ran. It’s simply not enough today, and no reversion to the ideas of the 80′s will help the GOP with 21st century voters. The GOP has a lot of work to do over the next four years, and most of it will have to be trailblazing rather than inherited in order to stay relevant.

Reagan Garnered 66% of the white vote and 34% persent of the Hispanic vote, a feat that would most definitely still win today and in the next 8 years.

“His ideas hold very little appeal for the dramatically more diverse community” – So you’re saying only white people like prosperity and opportunity? I don’t believe that’s true in the least. Reagan increased opportunity for everyone in America, he increased prosperity, reduced the misery index for everyone.

“Well, this administration’s objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living costs. All must share in the productive work of this “new beginning,” and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America, at peace with itself and the world.”
`President Ronald Reagan

This is wishful thinking along the lines of Dick Morris saying that Romney’s going to be win by a landslide. Reagan got 66% of the white vote and 34% of the Hispanic vote running against Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in the early 80′s. How would he do against Barack Obama in the 2010′s? As you should know by now, the demographics have changed a lot. I lived through the Reagan years, and it wasn’t all that great. It was the first time that I started seeing homeless people on the streets in major American cities, something that I never dreamed would happen in the US. Ask the current electorate how many would want to go back to the Reagan years, and you might be surprised.

At the same time, the states were letting a lot of people out of group homes, etc. due to all the lawsuits and allegations of misconduct. Instead of helping the people ,the state evicted them and they were on the street, stuggling to make it. And whether you like it or not, some people choose ‘homelessness’ as a lifestyle choice.

Extremely prescient post, especially about the “real” Obama and his legacy, from someone who obviously has not drunk the FoxWorld cool aid.

The Republican party should do the country a huge favor and simply disband… and all old white males should simply cease any participation in the political process. That would surely lead to a schism among the myriad Democrat party constituencies, who would begin an internecine war over the nation’s ever diminishing fiscal resources. If nothing else, we useless old troglodyte partriarchs would get a hoot out of the resulting chaos.

Sign me up.

I think the GOP should simply vote “present”.

the nations “diminishing fiscal resources” are going to the elderly, mainly. So don’t speak so derisively of public assistance. For every $1 a person contributes to Medicare, they get $3 back in services.

A revolt played out in public. Let’s see, the Republican Party skews old, so let’s have nostalgia for someone elected to president 32 years ago. That will get the buzz going.
Besides, the logic is flawed. While those of us who live and breath politics can tell the difference between a fiscal liberal, who talks like a fiscal conservative, and a true fiscal conservative, the general public can not. The general public thought that they defeated conservatism, and to tell them that the Mandarins aren’t really conservative is a losing message.
If the Republican Party can’t nominate a true conservative, the general public certainly won’t. But these things swing. New conditions might bring on new personalities, and a real conservative can win, but he won’t be a new “Reagan”. He or she will be his or her own person.

The leftist media will try to paint any Republican extreme. The party has to come up with the Reagan type that can appeal to many groups and publicize that image. We need to drop the social policy emphasis as it is driving independents away. Recognize the anti abortion need but don’t make the party platform because it isn’t going to happen in our lifetimes.

An excellent piece that helps explain the losses of Romney, McCain, Dole and G.H.W. Bush. Fine and decent men, all, yet they nevertheless lacked that certain but intangible “heart and soul” conservatism that made Reagan, Reagan. He didn’t need to figure out conservatism; it was second nature to him and therefore he could articulate it so clearly and simply that his elections were not just victories, but landslides that carried with them the necessary mandates to carry forth his ideas into policy: something this President lacks and to which President Clinton, who never obtained even 50% of the vote, never came close to obtaining. The, “Time is (again) Now,” and I sincerely hope and pray that, indeed, a “Republican Reagan Renaissance,” is just around the corner. God Bless America!

You put Rubio on the ticket with Romney and they would clearly get more than 27% of the Latino vote….quite sure the difference of who would be in Washington D.C. and who would be going home to Hawaii. I like Ryan, a lot, but he wasn’t the right choice for the ticket and the current electorate.

Good article- Reagan brought prosperity and was able to reach across the aisle. Having someone like him win in 2016 would get us back on track.

He “Brought” prosperity thanks to a 3 trillion dollar (today’s money) Stimulas…

This article is very difficult to read.

What stupidity!

Reaganomics are a huge part of what SANK Mitt Romney. He surrounded himself with Bush & Reagan cronies and tried to repackage the same stinking mess that got us into this recession. The good folks of the United States saw through his “plan” and sent him packing.

Yes. Please double down on Reaganomics….I’m sure we’ll come up with more angry white guys SOMEWHERE.

Hahaha. You quoted Politico quoting yourself??? Bad form. But do keep dreaming. We need the entertainment.

Svengali? Comrade? pere? fils? hornswhaa? (what is this, the 1850s?).

And can you stop using Mandarins every other damn sentence?

Is anyone editing anything at all?

Is this the Ronald Reganites that gave amnesty to 3 million illegals??? No thanks. I and many supported Romney because of his tough stance on illegals. Anything less and I might as well vote for Obama and Pelosi.

This is the biggest bunch of hooey I’ve read since the election. More than likely this election put the final nail in the coffin Reaganomics and finished off the coalition that dominated the Republican party since Reagan was elected.

I don’t know much about Pence but your mention of Brownback is laughable. He started his adminsitration off trying to shut down Planned Parenthood in Kansas and his tax cut is expected to cost state coffers 4.5 billion dollars over the next 5 years and will decimate what has previously been the crown jewel of Kansas, its public education system. I don’t think that’s an electable prescription for 2016.

Reagan is dead
He’s not coming back
And if he did, he’d pander to the over-65 whose Medicare is the cause of economic pain for all

This guy ever have a real job? Looks to me like he’s laughing all the way to the bank. Ouch!!

This guy has amnesia. The economic “prosperity” that we had in the 80s, (which never lifted the boats of the lower classes, btw) was totally funded with huge deficits. He wants to go back to “borrow and spend”? At least Obama wants to do something about the deficit. Reagan’s GOAL on the other hand, was to create large deficits to have rationale to defund the public sector. So says David Stockman.

I think Sarah Palin and Scott Walker are the true rising stars of the Republican Party. The author didn’t mention either of them.

Don’t bet on it!

1. Karl Rove may have been discredited but the Bush Family isn’t going anywhere and you can bet Romney’s $10,000 that they and their cronies are already scheming on how to roll out the red carpet coronation for Jeb.

2. Reagan was of his time. I was a senior in high school when Reagan was elected (we watched it on TV in Civics class at Lorena HS). Unfortunately, the Bush Family dominated GOP has turned the legacy of Ronald Reagan into more of a team mascot then a set of guiding principles.

3. In Reagan’s time, business leaders shared the vision of a rising tide lifting all boats. In Reagan’s era, business saw the hiring of employees as evidence of profitable growth, not a liability to be off-shored, outsourced, and eliminated by any means necessary. Layoffs were done out of economic necessity, not as a strategy to raise of the value of stock.

4. Reagan was willing to negotiate with his enemies without compromising his principles. The best example was his arms reduction talks with the USSR. That would almost be impossible for today’s GOP with what David Frum has called the GOP Entertainment-Complex, which considers sharing an elevator with a member of the opposition to be one step short of treason.

Reagan’s economics were voodoo, but Republicans’ constant, mystical incantation of his name is just straight-up Ouija board bullshit.

The guy was a good president for a certain moment of time, but pretty overrated even so. There’s really not a lot his gauzy memory (I mean, not his own notably gauzy memory, that would be rather insensitive in light of how literally senile he turned out to be…the gauzy memory of him) has to offer in the present situation. The only thing I would say Republicans should really take from him is to be more appealing. Mike Huckabee’s pretty much the only one with any idea how to come off as affable, or even recognizably human.

The “read my lips” quote is very disappointing to hear again and again. The electorate is hoping for a spirit of compromise so that we can get through the fiscal cliff negotiations. Bush Sr. compromised with a slight increase in the top tax bracket by 3% to 31% and boy did he pay for it. When this is drilled into our heads over and over again, how do you expect either Obama or Boehner to come to any kind of understanding? If either side gives at all, they will be judged as weak. Bush Sr. showed that he was reasonable and willing to reach across the aisle. We could use more of that today on both sides.

I absolutely agree 1000% !!

My favorite and most ardently agreed phrase, quote- “The enormity of (and surprise at) the defeat of Romney is a huge setback — and perhaps fatal — to the Bush Mandarins’ hegemony over the GOP.  If so, the potential re-ascendency of the Reagan wing of the GOP will prove very bad news for liberals and excellent news for the Republican Party.  The Reagan wing now can resurge. A resurgence already has begun.”

The only thing worse than Liberal Obamacrats, are the GOP establishment RINOs of the Bush’s and Roves. The enemy within, is always far more more dangerous and worse, than the enemy from without.

This is the difference in being a real Reagan Conservative, vs a GOP Republican Party progressive establishment RINO.. for a RINO is no better and different than being a liberal Democrat / Obamacrat. It’s like having 2 political party’s of the same borrow, tax, and spend destruction leadership.. Thus where’s the party of opposition, and not in name only.. It’s the Tea Party Reagan Conservatives, for we are the only real true opposition.

That’s why the GOP Establishment of Nixon, Ford, Rockefeller, the Bush’s, have always hated and fought us grass roots Constitutional Conservatives, from Barry Goldwater, to Ronald Reagan, to Sarah Palin, to Ted Cruz, to Jim DeMint, to Michele Bachmann, etc..

Rand Paul? This is the man who has just come out in favor of RESTRICTING LEGAL IMMIGRATION, to allow for the “pathway to citizenship” for MILLIONS of ILLEGALS. You must be kidding. And as for Ted Cruz, having only won the election a week ago and not sworn in yet, Ted Cruz who has become the poster child for the liberal web site HUFFINGTON POST as the Republican throwing the REPUBLICANS under the bus on their treatment of HISPANICS/LATINOS and how we have to do more for them? You really are missing a big point here in your pushing these people who have NARY a clue on the border. And don’t give me that “cached line” after we secure the border first. That is a lie and has been a lie, and the amnesty of MILLIONS OF CRIMINALS, AKA ILLEGALS isn’t going to garner one single vote for a conservative, just more for the Democrats. And before you reply, with an ill advised “luv me some illegals” comment I LIVE JUST MINUTES FROM THE BORDER IN DEEP SOUTH TEXAS, I live it, I know it, and I know that it is as big a fraud as Fast and Furious, and Benghazi, and the debacle of a fraud know as the election on NOV. 6 2012.

This is the worst self-serving nonsense I’ve ever seen Forbes allow an author to publish. Brownback as anything but an extreme social conservative who hates the idea of unmarried men having sex and who helped Bush regulate the Internet? Rubio who thinks the same way and is pushing very hard to regulate the Internet even more including criminalizing all porn?

If the establishment pushes Rubio thinking that being a latino is going to help them win, they will lose again and this time I will help them lose.

I’m a very politically savvy conservative. I disagreed with Ron Paul about foreign policy but then watched Romney lose because he alienated Paul’s supporters and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party.

I saw how Santorum dragged the reputation of the GOP through the santorum with his ridiculously radical religious agenda.

Santorum was whom many of the Obama voters were voting against because Romney never distanced himself enough from him.

I’m the one Forbes should have asked about what Romney’s loss will mean for the future of the GOP.

Rand Paul is very different from the others you described (I know nothing about Ted Cruz so far).

So you got Ran Paul right. He’s the one most people are looking at now (except the establishment bloggers). There was a failure to recognize that half the GOP is now libertarian and they don’t remember Reagan as some kind of God because Reagan was the one who let the evangelicals take over the party.

Rand may have a chance. But not if the Democrats ran in 2016 on something like “Ban hormones in livestock” and Rand were to oppose that. Libertarianism doesn’t mean allowing poison in food. Let’s see a common sense candidate.

This article is whitewashing propaganda and as wrong as wrong can be. The Bushes are very indecent political gangsters who are very much still ruthlessly pursuing their elitist neoconservative agenda, believe they are entitled to another shot at ruining the country, and have always preferred to let hacks like the late Atwater and Rove do their enforcing and dirty work. And Rove is far from finished in that capacity.

Mark it hear. The 2016 Republican nominee is, not will be, Crown Prince John Ellis Bush. Sold as Juan Arbusto, the first “Hispanic” major party nominee. Will it work? No. Will they try it, yes. Maybe after that fiasco, the “Reaganites” can have another try.

Just as I always supsected-Democrats never liked Mitt Romney prior to the election. Now Republicans are admitting they never liked him post-election.

McCain is a RINO and got shellacked by a guy with no experience at anything.

Romney is a RINO and got shellacked by the worst president in modern history.

2016 will see yet another RINO run and get shellacked.

Conclusion:

The RNC likes to sniff shellac…………………..

Problem is that the American people said they wanted somebody to take care of them, not more opportunity.

This op-ed is nothing more than a PR position piece for the purpose of damage control.

As long as the GOP stays mum on Constitutional POTUS ineligibility via “gentlemen’s agreement”, and the silent coup of criminal and recidivist voter fraud by the impotent liberal socialists (aka role models for CHEATERS or “How to slip through the cracks and obtain Power”), they will merely be strawmen, dupes, and wimps.

To be terse, the GOP in toto, are unpatriotic embarrassments and HYPOCRITES who lack integrity.

They got what they deserve by lying by omission.

Obama is a dangerous dictator whose mens rea is to convert America into a Socialist Bloc Country, all the while secreting billions in offshore accounts for his lifetime retirement.
(read: www.thewhitehats.com and their 47 soon to be 48 reports)

He is a creation of the CIA, as was Bush 41 (Russ Baker “Family of Secrets”) Obama’s mother was CIA, along with his grandparents. Andrew Basiago, a highly credentialed attorney even claims Obama and himself participated in a CIA-DARPA time travel “Jump” to Mars. Perhaps, that is the origin of Obama’s deep head scars.

Until the GOP comes clean: exposes ineligibility, exposes voter fraud, exposes massive corruption of money hungry power players including Grover Norquist within their spider web, they will have no more respect than the INSANE nitwits in the Democratic party, from Pelosi to Moron (I mean Moran), to Jackson Lee, to Wasserman Schultz, to Reid to Schumer, and soon, Liz “Native” Warren.

Your intention is well-meaning, but it will take a village to convince libertarians of your lofty goals for a defunct party who dumps conservatives in primaries and elevates a closet liberal from Massachusetts.

This paean to Ronnie Reagan is probably the funniest thing I’ll read today.

Reagan isn’t coming back. His economic policies were fully implemented to the hilt under Bush and we saw the country plunged into a near-Depression as a result. Reaganomics produced a massive deficit and Bushism just made it worse. Moreover, the blind greed and selfishness of the Reagan years ruined a generation and dismantled American progress toward greatness.

The memory of Reagan is warning for those of us who remember those embittered years and we will do well to never emulate them again.

Here’s a newsflash for you. Reagan presided over tax increases in 7 of his 8 years as president (mainly for the middle class, not the wealthy), and he tripled the deficit during his time in office. So much for Reagan’s “tax-cutting” accomplishments.

He was also a true believer in “trickle-down economics” whereby wealth lavished on the already wealthy will “trickle-down” over the upraised hands and faces of the poor masses yearning for a few crumbs.

It didn’t work then, and it’s been tried again since then (Bush II) and failed as well. It doesn’t work. Period. When will you grasp this reality? Why are Republicans always such deniers of reality? It’s the one major fault that is going to doom them to the dark annals of American history.

Democrats are wishing this is so. The mythology of Reagan was the beginning of the end for the GOP. Reagan is as ancient history as the Incas. Some will be fooled all the time, but not enough to win anything but the election for local dog catcher.

I don’t know what part of this article excites me more, getting rid of Karl the Rove, or supporting Mike Pence as our next Republican nominee. I so truly hope that we can and do realize that we must cover all of Reagans conservative planks. For those that wanted to put the social issues on the back burner, and run away from them, I hope they found out the hard way that where you leave message vaccums, the liberals will most definitely step forward to fill the void and they did. Binders of women, birth control, tampons, vaginas in costume, and of course the new spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Sandra Fluke. By the time this idiot Obama gets done with us, we will be lucky if we are not bombed into radical islamic submission, or nuked by the nutjob in Iran.

I absolutely adore Mike Pence. Did I tell you I love Mike Pence. Pence/Rubio 2014, if we have a country left for them to take over.

My understanding is that Senator DeMint is considering a run for the presidency in 2016, which would coincide nicely with his self-imposed term limits. So I don’t know about the author’s reference to DeMint as merely an “elder statesman.”

Moreover, one could make the case that neither Senators Rubio nor Paul would be experienced enough in 2016 to make a credible run. Further, an old maxim is a politician should never run for higher office until he has won reelection, at least once, to his current office. Both Rubio and Paul will be up for reelection in 2016. I believe that they should run for reelection to the Senate, and leave the presidency to those, like DeMint, who have more experience.

You do realize that Regan was president over 30 years ago? Why don’t you reach farther back and aim for a resurgence in Taft economics, or maybe model the new conservative economy on Grants’ platform? Maybe a James Buchanan model would be a fitting social and economic time period for you to restore?

Good article i can only hope its does come to fruition. I myself will keep an eye on them and see how the GOP as a whole interacts with its Libertarian wing. If it embraces it I can certainly be swayed to support it once again. Although if we get force-fed West, Rubio, & Bachman in coming years they can kiss their ass goodbye.

While i love Ronny, i think its time to put him to bed. No more campaigning with the platitudes of whom is more Reagan like. That ship sailed in 2008. Time for the GOP to embrace the other Ron.

You can keep ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOObio. He is a stealth Bush-wacker and Jeb Bush’s lap dog.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOobio deserves an Academy Award for his impersonation of a conservative. He talks like Reagan but is Bush’s client.

Floridians got hoodwinked in 2010 but we won’t be fooled again.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOObio is a corrupt crony of the Bush crime family.