Texas In sider Report: AUSTIN Texas Most of the Republican presidential candidates are vying for the mantle of the Reagan conservative" which raises an interesting question: How many conservatives has the GOP nominated as its presidential candidate in the last say 50 years? Or 80 years? Hint you can count them on one hand maybe just two fingers.
For all the whining from the left and the media about how the Republican Party is filled with out-of-touch right-wing extremists it has nominated some pretty moderate presidential candidates over the years usually justified by the assertion that a conservative isnt electablethough it is often the moderate who actually loses.
Look at the Republican nominees since 1960. Conservatives pressed for Barry Goldwater but it was Richard Nixon who led the Republican charge. Yes Nixon was a hawk on foreign policy but on domestic policy he gave uswhen he finally was elected in 1968price controls and ended the gold standard among other bad policies.
Of course conservative Barry Goldwater was the candidate in 1964 but only after a heated battle with east coast liberal Republicans who wanted Nelson Rockefellerand almost got him. Goldwater lost but it would have been very difficult for anyone to win against the sympathy vote for the assassinated John Kennedy.
Nixon got the nomination and the presidency in the 1968 and 72 elections and Gerald Ford in 1976. Like the 1960 nomination battle conservatives fought in 76 for their man Ronald Reagan but lost. Without a clear distinction between the moderate Ford and the very liberal but conservative talking Jimmy Carter voters opted for Cartergiving us the second worst president in modern times.
Then we have the one solid conservative president Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 84 elections. Since then George H.W. Bush was nominated in 1988based on a promise to be Reagans third termand again in 92. Remember conservatives opposed Bush in 1980 for being too moderate by 1992 the country agreed.
The moderate Bob Dole was the candidate in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush ran on the compassionate conservatism" platforma clear indication he wasnt entirely comfortable with traditional conservatism.
Finally there was the maverick" John McCain in 2008 who was compelled to reach out to leading conservatives in an effort to make amends for years of seemingly taking pleasure in poking them in the eye.
Want more proof? How about 1952? At the time Ohio Senator Robert Taftreferred to as Mr. Conservative"was considering a run for president. And so was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although no one was quite sure if Eisenhower was a Republican or DemocratDemocrats tried to offer him the nominationonce Eisenhower announced he was a Republican the moderate and liberal elements in the Republican Party embraced him.
To be sure those moderate" Republican candidates were more conservative than their Democratic opponents. But for all its efforts to self-identify as the conservative alternativeespecially since 1980the Republican Party has tended to shun solid conservatives as presidential nominees preferring instead to balance" the ticket by putting the conservative in the vice presidential slot. That was true of George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle Bob Dole and Jack Kemp George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and John McCain and Sarah Palin.The point isnt that all of these vice presidential candidates should have led the ticket but that there is a long pattern of the GOP leading with its left so to speak. And yet the one president to become the Republican icon and the model to be emulatedat least in word if not always in deedwas the one undeniable conservative.
And even then Reagan decided to choose Bush as his running mate rather than the conservative Jack Kemp whom he preferred in order to mitigate the clamors that he was too conservative.
Its a pattern weve seen for decades. In 1936 when President Franklin Roosevelt was running for reelection Republicans were afraid they couldnt run a conservative against such a liberal presidentSound familiar?so they opted for the moderate governor of Kansas Alf Landon who was beaten in a landslide.
So it should come as no surprise that some especially in the mainstream media are doing their best to coronate Mitt Romney as the most electable candidate even before the primaries begin while raising fears that those with unflinching conservative bona fides cant win the general election. Romney like the other candidates claims to be a Reagan conservative today but past actions have raised numerous doubts.
We may be seeing 1980 all over again: Handwringing that a conservative is too radical for the population and highlighting the need for someone more electable. So it may be worth asking what would have happened in 1980 if Republicans had nominated Bush for president and Reagan as his veep.
We would likely have gotten four more years of the second worst president.
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas Texas.
Texas In sider Report: AUSTIN Texas Most of the Republican presidential candidates are vying for the mantle of the Reagan conservative" which raises an interesting question: How many conservatives has the GOP nominated as its presidential candidate in the last say 50 years? Or 80 years? Hint you can count them on one hand maybe just two fingers.
For all the whining from the left and the media about how the Republican Party is filled with out-of-touch right-wing extremists it has nominated some pretty moderate presidential candidates over the years usually justified by the assertion that a conservative isnt electablethough it is often the moderate who actually loses.
Look at the Republican nominees since 1960. Conservatives pressed for Barry Goldwater but it was Richard Nixon who led the Republican charge. Yes Nixon was a hawk on foreign policy but on domestic policy he gave uswhen he finally was elected in 1968price controls and ended the gold standard among other bad policies.
Of course conservative Barry Goldwater was the candidate in 1964 but only after a heated battle with east coast liberal Republicans who wanted Nelson Rockefellerand almost got him. Goldwater lost but it would have been very difficult for anyone to win against the sympathy vote for the assassinated John Kennedy.
Nixon got the nomination and the presidency in the 1968 and 72 elections and Gerald Ford in 1976. Like the 1960 nomination battle conservatives fought in 76 for their man Ronald Reagan but lost. Without a clear distinction between the moderate Ford and the very liberal but conservative talking Jimmy Carter voters opted for Cartergiving us the second worst president in modern times.
Then we have the one solid conservative president Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 84 elections. Since then George H.W. Bush was nominated in 1988based on a promise to be Reagans third termand again in 92. Remember conservatives opposed Bush in 1980 for being too moderate by 1992 the country agreed.
The moderate Bob Dole was the candidate in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush ran on the compassionate conservatism" platforma clear indication he wasnt entirely comfortable with traditional conservatism.
Finally there was the maverick" John McCain in 2008 who was compelled to reach out to leading conservatives in an effort to make amends for years of seemingly taking pleasure in poking them in the eye.
Want more proof? How about 1952? At the time Ohio Senator Robert Taftreferred to as Mr. Conservative"was considering a run for president. And so was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although no one was quite sure if Eisenhower was a Republican or DemocratDemocrats tried to offer him the nominationonce Eisenhower announced he was a Republican the moderate and liberal elements in the Republican Party embraced him.
To be sure those moderate" Republican candidates were more conservative than their Democratic opponents. But for all its efforts to self-identify as the conservative alternativeespecially since 1980the Republican Party has tended to shun solid conservatives as presidential nominees preferring instead to balance" the ticket by putting the conservative in the vice presidential slot. That was true of George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle Bob Dole and Jack Kemp George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and John McCain and Sarah Palin.The point isnt that all of these vice presidential candidates should have led the ticket but that there is a long pattern of the GOP leading with its left so to speak. And yet the one president to become the Republican icon and the model to be emulatedat least in word if not always in deedwas the one undeniable conservative.
And even then Reagan decided to choose Bush as his running mate rather than the conservative Jack Kemp whom he preferred in order to mitigate the clamors that he was too conservative.
Its a pattern weve seen for decades. In 1936 when President Franklin Roosevelt was running for reelection Republicans were afraid they couldnt run a conservative against such a liberal presidentSound familiar?so they opted for the moderate governor of Kansas Alf Landon who was beaten in a landslide.
So it should come as no surprise that some especially in the mainstream media are doing their best to coronate Mitt Romney as the most electable candidate even before the primaries begin while raising fears that those with unflinching conservative bona fides cant win the general election. Romney like the other candidates claims to be a Reagan conservative today but past actions have raised numerous doubts.
We may be seeing 1980 all over again: Handwringing that a conservative is too radical for the population and highlighting the need for someone more electable. So it may be worth asking what would have happened in 1980 if Republicans had nominated Bush for president and Reagan as his veep.
We would likely have gotten four more years of the second worst president.
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas Texas.
