RONALD REAGAN'S ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT AND 2008 - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

As a conservative and a Republican I have had to do a bit of soul searching over the past week. I was a staunch Fredhead because I believed Thompson to be the only Conservative that the GOP had to offer for the 2008 Presidential nomination. I have always considered myself a Conservative first and a Republican second though I have been a card carrying member of the GOP since I turned twenty in 1976.

I have always backed the GOP candidates but like many of you who have been disappointed in the GOP for the last couple of years. I have been frustrated over the direction that the party has gone and have not been real, "Gung Ho, " about the candidates that remain in the running for the nomination.

Like many of you I have misgivings about each candidate and have written about them. Well this week as I have considered who I might support or not support I began remembering Ronald Reagan and have been reading the book, "The Reagan Diaries." A book that I highly recommend as it is a complete detail of the personal daily diary of one of our greatest Presidents.

I was a very involved part of the Reagan Revolution but over the years as President Reagan has risen even more in stature some of what happened during those great years has drifted into the realm of forgotten. One of those forgotten memories about President Reagan that I was reminded of while reading the book is that when he first began his crusade which turned the country around. Conservatives within the GOP accused Ronald Reagan of betraying conservative principles because he, out of necessity was forced to give a little to a very powerful Speaker of the House, "Tip, " O'Neal and a liberal Congress in whom he had to contend with in trying to get his conservative agenda passed.

Though he did not cave to the Democrats , Reagan did have to give some in order to eventually get all that he planned and the results , as history have shown turned a hurting, depressed nation with a devastated military into an optimistic people with a renewed Patriotism. A military unmatched in history, a growing economy and the victor over the Soviets.

President Reagan once said the following when asked about why he found compromise with the Congress though a staunch man of Conservative principle:

“When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it.
“Compromise” was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything. I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: ‘I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.’ If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.“

Reagan new that in order to win one must give a little and if getting seventy five or eighty percent meant that getting it all was an eventuality then that is what must be done. He understood that giving some without compromising principles or beleif was necessary to get what was worth fighting for. In this election year we Republicans are faced with a similar situation as President Reagan was at the beginning of his eight year Presidency. We may not have everything we desire in a candidate but in each we do have seventy five to eighty percent of what we may want.

President Reagan also had an eleventh commandment that he lived by as a Republican and it was, "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." Reagan realized that though we may have our ideological differences within the party that the only way to beat a Democrat was to present a united front and not bicker among ourselves.

In this election year we face a danger that has never appeared in this nation before. The top contenders for the Democrat nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are Socialists. They may claim otherwise but as one researches their policy statements and the massive entitlements and other government expenditures that both propose, even Socialism may be a little right of where they really stand.

Combine this with the distinct possibility that a Democrat/Socialist President would likely have a liberal Congress willing to pass the Socialist agenda and we face a national disaster that even a new Congress and new President in 2012 may not be able to repair or reverse.

It is therefore a necessity that the GOP win the White House to prevent this Socialist catastrophe from happening. Though our candidates may not be 100% of what we want each would fight the Democrats with the VETO pen and fight to prevent the Socialist agenda from destroying this nation as it has other nations in history.

We are a free Republic and we owe it to our heritage and the generations who follow to keep this nation free and provide a less intrusive government of the people and by the people. Democrats view the people as an inconvenience preventing government from controlling every aspect of our lives.

Though we may have certain issue differences with the remaining candidate it is imperative that we adhere to Reagan's eleventh and unite as a party to defeat the Democrats in 2008. In our eventual nominee we may not have all we want but the seventy five or eighty percent we do have will give us a strong basis from which to fight for the rest because Republicans still believe in the power of the people and understand that the people are the nation and not the government.

We can win this year. We MUST win this year to prevent a Socialist catastrophe lead by Hillary or Obama. We Republicans, we Conservatives and we Moderates must unite as one to give our party a chance in defeating the onslaught to come by the Democrats. Do not forget the lesson of 2006 when many Conservatives because of the disappointment with the GOP Majority did not vote and the current do nothing Democrat Congress is the result of our failure to unite in defeating the Democrats.

We cannot allow that to happen this year. We must stand together in that party unity and fight for the principles we believe in, for the country we love and for the future of our nation. Beating back the Socialist onslaught of the Democrats and renewing this nation to the founding principles that made us the greatest nation in history.

Ken Taylor