GOP, no more looking in the rear-view mirror by looking back to Reagan

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele insists the GOP has embarked on a new chapter and says it now must offer genuine solutions for the ailing country.

"The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done," Steele said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday to state party chairmen. "We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the rearview mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future."

Yet, even as Steele urged the party to focus on the future, he reached back to a Republican former president, saying: "Ronald Reagan always insisted that our party must move aggressively to seize the moment. He insisted that our party recognize the truth of the times and establish our first principles in both word and deed."

Imploring conservatives to fearlessly apply their "timeless principles" to current challenges, Steele said, "For Reagan's conservatism to take root in the next generation we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age."

http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story/Embattled-GOP-Chair-Steele-Looking-Forward/LSKIWnf4bk-qJ2ilmJpong.cspx?rss=702


:rofl:

Like acting more like the DLC so the DNC can actually be called "liberals"?...oh wait' I'm talking about Republicans.

Nevermind.

Jesus...will they let Reagan die already. They know 95% of his legend is hype.

Two guys are riding a bicycle built for two.

They start up a hill ...

The going is tough, but after a long, tiring effort, they get to the top of the hill.

Looking back, the guy in front says "Wow, that hill was much steeper than I thought!"

The guy in the back says "Yeah ... and we would have rolled backwards if I hadn't had the brakes on!"

Aside from the fact they burst very easily, will the Limbaugh-types give them up?

anything, ever? But to do anything like Steele is suggesting, first the pukies would have to get a clue and actually understand what the words relevant, principles, and solutions mean. But in the end it will all come out sounding like "tax cuts for the extremely wealthy". Same old, same old.

I love to hear conservatives talk about their history. It doesn't exist. They operate in some alternate universe where they didn't oppose the Great Society programs that still exist to this day. They pretend that somehow it is the democratic/FDR legacy that "failed" even though no real movement away from the social safety net has ever past congress. Oh, we undermine it on a regular basis, but it is still the notional/ideal model around which we attempt to operate. SS is still there, the GOP passed the medicare drug benefit program, such as it is. PBS is still there, so is the EPA, FCC, FDA, ATF, and all the other alphabet soup organizations that they love to rail against so much. They love to complain about big government, but they never, ever, reduce the size. The GOP created the largest single new department in decades with the HSA.

They talk about "getting back to" basic principals, but they never, ever, have governed from them, ever. It's all just a fund raising strategy. Democrats, as imperfect as they are, ultimately tend to move this country forward in permanent ways. Go back 50 years and do a comparison and what you will find is that however the country has changed, it has done so based upon progressive/democratic principals. SS, food stamps, unemployment, civil rights, environmental protection, and security and it is the progressive "principals" that dominate the subject. Even certain current issues such as international diplomacy, and immigration and it is the progressive stance that is seen as the "status quo" against which even Obama's actions are measured.

There is only one enduring GOP principal that they can look to that has endured through the decades. They are, and always will be, the party of the rich. Lower taxes for the rich. More power for the corporation. NAFTA, WTO, and free trade as well as deregulation and protection of the most wealthy at the cost of the least. They hate anything that empowers the poor or middle class and they regularly undermine anything that progressives do by getting protections in place for the wealthy. THAT is the only "enduring principal" that they have. Reagan's singular enduring and lasting legacy was not Star Wars that is all but gone. It isn't the 600 ship navy, that is being slowly dismantled. It isn't the defeat of communism, since of course China, N. Korea, and Cuba still exist (and was never really communism we were fighting, but totalitarianism). It is the union busting ATC strike action and peeling away union democrats to vote against their own interests. It is a top rate of 36-39% on the richest amongst us.