Redefining Conservatism

Townhall
By Cal Thomas

This just in: Ronald Reagan is dead and he’s not coming back. Now, can conservatives please move on?

Reagan always spoke about the future and its possibilities. Today’s conservatives, however, can’t seem to break with the past and the nostalgia for the Reagan years. Even in his letter to the American people in 1994 in which he revealed he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, Reagan wrote of his “eternal optimism” for the country’s future. Too many modern conservatives seem embedded in a concrete slab of pessimism, preferring to go over a bridge and drown rather than “compromise” their “principles.” If you can’t get elected, your principles can be talked about on the lecture circuit, but are unlikely to be adopted in Washington.

John McCain, some say, is not a true conservative. Was Reagan? Reagan campaigned as a tax cutter. He cut taxes, but he also raised them. He promised conservative judges and spoke of his opposition to abortion, yet named two justices to the Supreme Court (Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy) who voted to uphold Roe v. Wade.

The Article

ShareThis