Ronald Reagan Would Back McCain

by Michael Reagan - February 14th, 2008 - Newsmax.com

Assuming that John McCain will be the Republican nominee, you can bet my father would be itching to get out on the campaign trail working to elect him even if he disagreed with him on a number of issues.

Unlike my father, a lot of conservatives stayed home in 1976, and we got four years of Jimmy Carter, whose main legacy was to drive the Shah of Iran from power and create the Islamic Republic of Iran with a bunch of wild-eyed mullahs running the show. He also gave us 20 percent inflation and long, long lines at the gas pumps. And don’t forget 440 days of Americans held hostage by the mullahs.

By staying home those conservatives made possible the future election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

We are still suffering from the legacy of James Earl Carter, thanks to the conservatives who refused to follow Ronald Reagan’s example and instead sulked at home while the nation was being handed over to the worst president in American history.

I am constantly at odds with a small number in the Republican Party who claim to be heir to the Reagan legacy but who don't remember his legacy accurately. They agreed with Reagan on a couple of points, but have not really studied Reagan and have simply ignored much of his legacy. Reagan called himself a libertarian-conservative. He lived it. That meant that individual freedom was as important to him as the love of our nation that fostered his commitment to defeating communism.

As noted on this blog before, there are a couple of current policies of the Republican Party that I think would have been abhorent to Ronald Reagan. As much as I dislike them though, I stay a Repubilican for the same reason that he stayed a Republican . . . and that Abe Lincoln stayed an American even while the scourge of slavery was the law of the land in part of our nation. Nothing is perfect no matter how great. This nation has always been the greatest nation on earth because of the concept of individual freedom which has been fostered by the form of government our forefathers created for us. While slavery was the law of the land, we were not living up to our highest ideals. However at the right time, 500,000 Americans died for the abstract concept of freedom for others. That is part of why America is great. Today we are fighting for our own freedom, and freedom for others.

The Republican Party is the one party that is committed to that form of government that inspires people to die for abstract intellectual ideals. It has been such since Abe Lincoln and others created the Republican Party 150 years ago.

As noted in this article, we are in a war. If we do stupid things we could lose that war and lose our freedom in the process.

Mike Reagan ends his article with:

Let me say this. There has been plenty of battling in the primaries, and I’ve been in the middle of the battle, but until now haven’t committed myself to any candidate, waiting until we had a nominee.

That’s over.

If John McCain is the nominee of the party, this Reagan will happily campaign with him. The alternative is unthinkable to anyone who loves this nation.

I agree.