I read, “The Way Things Ought to Be” by Rush Limbaugh before I could legally vote. At the age of eleven, in middle school, I debated in a public school debate event as Ronald Reagan’s representative for my class. I literally cried real tears on that fateful day in 1994 when the Republican Revolution ripped government control from the hands of liberal democrats. I am now, and have always been a Conservative, hence I voted Republican. I have been listening intently to the big conservative talk radio shows and their discussions about who should now where the mantle of Ronald Reagan. Who is the real conservative in the Republican race that most resembles Reagan and his platform?
Believe it or not, among the current Republican candidates there is actually one man who was among only four Republicans in 1976 to endorse Reagan over Gerald Ford. The same candidate was himself endorsed by Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan even campaigned for this candidate. There is a candidate on the current Republican ticket, and only one candidate according to the National Taxpayers Union, that proposes reducing the size of the Federal Government, also like Reagan. The same candidate, like Reagan, has called for the dismantling of the welfare state, the Department of Education, and a reduction in federal regulations. Not surprisingly this candidate has been, like Reagan also was by Gerald Ford in 1976, deemed unelectable. The candidate I’m referring to has never voted for an unbalanced budget, a tax increase, a congressional pay raise, or an increase in executive powers. He has never taken a paid junket in all his years in congress and even now as he runs for the highest office in this land he has raised more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than any other candidate despite the fact that he doesn’t take federal election monies. Who is this candidate, the one that most resembles Ronald Reagan and his platform? It is Ron Paul.
Has Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity told you any of these things. Not that I have heard, and I have been listening. Rush referred to him as a loon and Hannity has on every occasion he has been given openly mocked him. These men claim to carry the conservative mantle, to be the ones hoping to continue Reagan’s tradition in our country. As much as it pains me to say, owing a great deal to Rush Limbaugh concerning my early education in the conservative movement, we conservatives need to realize that he and his counter parts are as much a part of the problem as George W. Bush himself. Rush teaches a pragmatic conservatism and it is that pragmatic conservatism that has brought the Republican Party to this low place in its history. Vote for the lesser of two evils we have been told for twenty years, its better than the alternative, well now its not. Faced with John McCain as the nominee, I am continually shocked to hear Limbaugh, Hannity, and others continue to ignore the man that actually knew and was liked and endorsed by Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. Just to illustrate the real irony of the situation, the man they are telling us is the real conservative, Mitt Romney, is the son of the blue blood Republican who ran against and defeated Barry Goldwater in 1964, dividing the party and paving the way for Goldwater’s ideals to be furthered by a young ex Democrat California Governor by the name of Ronald Reagan. Since Dr. Paul has a consistent record going back more than thirty years, a record that we know Reagan approved of and endorsed, I submit that we know who Reagan would endorse now. It is not the big spending Washington insiders pushed on us by talking heads, it is Ron Paul. Ronald Reagan and all he stood for is dead, betrayed with a kiss by conservative Judas’ on the AM and FM dial.
