Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Iowa Statesman.
By Krusty Konservative
Dictator of the Iowa Blogosphere
It’s time for a bitch-slap of truth — for the Republican establishment, truth for “fiscal conservatives,” and truth for Christian conservatives.
I’d like to talk today about a Republican presidential candidate who was a former Democrat who championed the DNC’s agenda and helped get Democrats elected all around the country. He was a broken man, having dabbled in the ills of celebrity, including failures in marriage.
He rallied Americans of all political stripes with a message of “Make America Great Again,” and suggested America’s best days still lay ahead of her citizens. The party establishment hated him, accusing him of being a Democrat plant.
He advocated a number of policies that seemed antithetical to conservatism. But, he also suggested lowering tax rates to spur economic growth, but insisted that the wealthy — who typically avoid taxes through loopholes — should have more skin in the game.
And right about now, you’re absolutely certain I’m talking about current GOP presidential primary frontrunner Donald Trump. And you would be absolutely wrong.
I’m the first admit that I originally went into this campaign cycle absolutely disliking everything about The Donald. I still don’t like him much. But, I’m also honest enough with myself to say there are elements of his campaign that are really starting to connect with me.
The more I thought about that fact, I eventually came to the realization why. He’s the candidate we’ve been asking for over the last several decades, just not the way we expected him to be.
You’ve heard the standard Republican presidential stump speech, so you know it isn’t over until there is a reference to Ronald Reagan and how the candidate’s record relates to The Gipper. Listen to enough of them — or way too much FOX News Channel — and you soon gain the impression that everything great about the Republican Party, and in general, conservatism, was embodied in Ronnie.
And, in the minds of many, Donald Trump is the antithesis of all things GOP. I get it. In today’s world, it seems like The Donald is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He helped the Democrats until just recently. He’s had failed marriages. And, he’s championed issues that are straight out of the libtard playbook.
But you could say the exact same thing about Ronald Reagan.
He was a huge fan of FDR and helped the campaign of Richard Nixon’s U.S. Senate opponent in 1950. He campaigned for nuclear disarmament, earned a rebuke from his bosses at Warner Bros. He didn’t even become a Republican until 1962, just five years before he ran for Governor of California for the first time.
Reagan divorced his first wife, Jane Wyman — the mother of two of his children, adoptive mother of a third — after just eight years. He married his second wife, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, just three years after his divorce was finalized.
As Governor of California, he actually liberalized the state’s abortion laws — resulting in more than a million additional abortions that wouldn’t have been performed previously — and did absolutely nothing to reverse the abortion industry as President. And, in 1986, he set the stage for our current immigration debate by signing into law an act that gave amnesty to 2.7 million illegals.
Judging from the current polling numbers, it’s hard to imagine someone with that kind of track record would do well with Republican voters. The question I have, though, is pretty simple.
If you’re going to reject a candidate who is effectively Ronald Reagan Redux, why do you keep asking for him?
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Postscript — OK, can someone explain to me what the hell is wrong with Gov. Braindead? He can write an executive order to install his pro-homosexual “anti-bullying” agenda, but he can’t lift a finger to even end public funding of abortion in Iowa? This, the same guy who unilaterally shut down Iowa Workforce Development offices all across Iowa, the Iowa Girls’ Training School in Toledo, and the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant MHI’s (after saying the governor doesn’t have the authority to take unilateral action on marriage in 2010)?
ARE. YOU. F***ING. KIDDING. ME?!
GOP Establishment, this is why we despise you guys. You will run us over, mow us down, and fast-track a 10-cent increase in the gas tax, but you won’t do a damn thing to uphold an actual plank in the party platform. Even the State Central Committee gets it. So, what the hell happened to the rest of you? Do you REALLY think state-sanctioned — AND subsidized — murder is a winning proposition?
Please, I’m begging you. Please, for the love of God, show me some semblance of resolve.
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Herschel Krustofski is the pseudonym for the anonymous author of Krusty Konservative, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Iowa blogosphere. If you have a suggestion for his contributions to The Iowa Statesman, write to him at krustykonservative@outlook.com.
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