As most of the leading lights of the fractured Republican Party gather in Washington for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), organizer Al Cardenas is looking backwards for guidance in taking the GOP forward. Reflecting on Ronald Reagan's 1975 post-Watergate address to the conclave, Cardenas recalled the Gipper's lessons that "conservatives will never compromise their principles because that's the surest way to lose" and "you can't just be a conservative, you've got to be a good candidate."
Of course, Cardenas's mantras seem more than a little ironic in 2013. After all, the American Conservative Union chief refused Chris Christie, the most popular Republican in the nation, a speaking slot until he "earns his wings." And as it turns out, despite having addressed the gathering a dozen times in the 1970's and 1980's, today that ever-compromising, Republican in Name Only Ronald Reagan would never be let through the door of CPAC 2013.
Here are 10 reasons why:
- Reagan tripled the national debt
- Reagan raised taxes 11 times
- Reagan expanded the size of government
- Reagan supported the "socialist" Earned Income Tax Credit
- Reagan negotiated with terrorists in Tehran
- Reagan sought to eliminate nuclear weapons
- Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants
- Reagan approved protectionist trade barriers
- Reagan signed abortion rights law in California
- Reagan eventually debunked AIDS myths Republicans continued to perpetuate
(Click a link to jump to the details for each which follow below the fold)
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