'Reagan coalition' called dead on RNC eve

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UPI

'Reagan coalition'
Published: Aug. 31, 2008 at 3:57 PM

ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 31 (UPI) -- As Republicans gather in Minnesota for their 2008 national convention, they face a new era in which the so-called "Reagan coalition" is gone, analysts say.

The broad alliance of social conservatives, small-government activists and pro-military hawks that elected U.S. President Ronald Reagan twice in the 1980s -- and which has mostly held together in the intervening years -- has splintered for good, analysts told McClatchy Newspapers Sunday.

"The coalition that elected Reagan is no longer there," William Lacy, a political director in the Reagan White House and now director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, told the news service. He said that in foreign policy, "neoconservative" interventionists have alienated many Republicans who believe nation-building is a mistake.

"Neocons are willing to throw out some of the principles of conservatism," he added.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/08/31/Reagan_coalition_called_dead_on_RNC_eve/UPI-91061220212624/

[liberalmuse]

1. Looks like they pissed off Reverend Moon.

You don't see many of these types of articles coming from the UPI these days. Refreshing.

[Cooley Hurd]

The Reagan Coalition is a dead as the Gipper himself...

:woohoo:

Harumph... I mean, "recommended."

[liberal N proud]

2. I still will never trust a Republican

[avaistheone1]

20. Me either.

:kick:

[Mrs. Overall]

3. Ah, does this finally mean they are going to stop digging up poor Ronnie's bones

and propping them up in a chair at every frickin right wing event?

[JHB]

22. Nah, it means they'll fight each other harder to proclaim their faction...

...as the "true heirs of the Reagan Legacy".

I think that whomever wants to be considered "Reagan's legacy" is welcome to it, as long as they pay off the part of the national debt rung up under St. Ronnie. Not that I'm anticipating any multi-trillion-dollar checks to the Treasury anytime soon....

[Warpy]

4. I'll believe it's completely fractured once the bible beaters

splinter off and form their own party.

I've had high hopes that former judge Roy Moore would do it since both parties consider him an embarrassment and he's still got a thirst for high office.

Until then, I think the coalition will stick together through inertia.

[harmonicon]

14. that already happened 8 years ago

The right wing splinter group is now called the Republican party, and the other part decided to call themselves Democrats, and merge with an existing part of the same name.

[pattmarty]

5. Ya know, as time goes by, and history is written...........

.........a president like Ronald Reagan will become a joke, and a president like Lyndon Johnson will become great. You "historians" think about this a minute before calling me all sorts of bad names. Funny how this shit happens.

[jberryhill]

7. Although in some ways...

...the current administration makes Nixon and Reagan look more like responsible statesmen.

Paranoid oddities aside, Nixon would be too liberal for Republicans now.

[pattmarty]

24. totally agree with ALL your points. I am not a presidential...........

........historian by any means, but in my lifetime I have seen 11 presidents from Truman up, and for what it's worth I think the current ass hole will by far end up being the worst.

[coalition_unwilling]

35. Whatever happens to Reagan's legacy,

the verdict on LBJ will remain "mixed." LBJ lied us into a war, just like Bushie-boy.

[laststeamtrain]

6. Dead, Dead, Dead...

Hopefully like 1964 dead but this time we keep an eye on 'em. This time we 'Grover Norquist' 'em & the religious nuts climb back into the margins where they belong.

That's the lesson; no rebuilding out of the spotlight allowed. Vigilance.

[neuvocat]

9. The think tanks have pushed and pulled at the margins for

years in order to make the most extreme rhetoric much more mainstream (watch Fox news and you'll plenty of examples of such extreme rhetoric in an hour or less and you'll see what I mean). The problem is that now there's no common ground for the neocons, which was a safe haven of sorts (eg 'can't we all agree we want what's best for the country?') because of all the bad-mouthing of everyone who wasn't one of them. They're getting their come-uppance.

[baldguy]

27. Aim for the head.

[unblock]

8. not nearly dead enough.

there's still much work to do.

[lonestarnot]

19. I agree with that statement! I can't smell it yet!

[NewJeffCT]

21. You're correct, and not just regarding the Reagan Coalition, but also

the Republican Party in general.

I mean, causing the Great Depression and supporting the rise of the Nazis didn't kill the party.

[whistle]

10. We'll likely see fascism working on all cylinders at RNC

[StopTheMadness]

11. Help me expose Norm Coleman's behavior toward women

If you really want to stop the right-wing wing-nuts, here is a concrete way: Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is one of George W's biggest lapdogs. He has also fought gay marriage, claiming it's because he's so interested in preserving the "sanctity of marriage." At the same time, there are many reports about Mr. Family Values' extra marital affairs, his sexual harassment of women in bars, restaurants and elsewhere, his racist comments, and his receipt of illegal "gifts" (campaign contributions in the multiple thousands of dollars at a shot). We are now working on an expose about Norm and his treatment of women. Please, if you want to help stop the madness of the republican right, contact me if you have ANY information about that hypocrite Coleman that might be helpful or relevant. Thank you.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

12. The real name for this coalition should be...

"The Greed & Racialism Coalition". Because that is all it has ever really been.

Along with a gangrenous mark on this nation.

And yes, I do believe that for this nation, going forward, to make sure that the destructive and criminal actions of the last 30 years never happen again, there must be certain retribution, as enumerated in our body of laws. Sweeping those actions under the rug will only serve to make sure and certain that we will revisit them, some time in the future. Terrible consequences for terrible actions are the only way that sociopaths ever learn. Make no mistake, in all of this we ARE dealing with sociopaths of the worst kind.

[IaTom]

13. Reagan Coalition

DO NOT RESUSCITATE!! Rest in Peace or Hell. Whichever Just don't come back.

[FatDave]

23. Welcome to DU, IaTom

What part of Iowa you from (if you don't mind my asking)?

[IaTom]

30. FatDave

North Iowa Twins fan Ice fishing The whole works

[FatDave]

31. Oh Jeepers!

Up nort where they say "doncha know"?

I was born and raised in Des Moines, now live west of there out in the country. Always good to see somebody from the old homestead.

[Odin2005]

15. The Pukes are about to spend a decade or 2 in the political wilderness.

The Fundy Pukes, Libertarian Pukes, and the Big Money Pukes are gonna tear themselves apart.

[DeepModem Mom]

16. K&R

[Demeter]

17. Good Riddance!

Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn no other way!

[Arugula Latte]

18. Awwww, what a shame.

:D

[Hekate]

25. I'm not ready to hold the wake yet, but when I do it will be with singing & toasting & all kinds...

... of carrying on.

How about we all hold the wake for the death of the Reagan Coalition after the votes are counted for President Obama in November? :toast:

Hekate

[FatDave]

26. I won;t believe it until I dance on the bloody corpse.

Even if we win the presidency--and I'm not convinced we will--the fascists will just slink off to the shadows, rebuild, and they'll come back with a vengeance.

[PfcHammer]

28. Piyush IS the next Ronald Raygun

so says Rush :eyes:

[Eric J in MN]

29. The group described in the article is voting for John McCain.

"social conservatives, small-government activists and pro-military hawks"

It would be fine by me if they voted for Obama, but they won't.

[NM Independent]

32. Where's the grave? I have some dancing to do!!

Wooofuckinhoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

33. The contradictions among the factions became too much

And now we're seeing them fight among each other as the progressive movement has grown ever more organized. There are still plenty of conservatives out there, they just don't have the same organization and influence they did a few years ago.

We're not feeling it quite yet due to Bush's stubbornness during the last two years, but the collapse of the Reagan Coalition will probably create a truly radical feeling among the rest of us. For my entire lifetime there has been a powerful centralized right wing political machine, and now the balance of power is shifting like it never has before. I bet the 2010s really are going to be that 'Renaissance decade' for the United States.

[Ishoutandscream2]

34. They have been fucking up this country for 28 years

My entire adult life. They killed the American dream. It will take perhaps decades to recover from this catastrophe. Drive the stake in the heart, and post a guard over the body. We can't let them rise again.

[Zorro]

36. Actually it's been 40 years

ever since Nixon got elected in 1968.

And the Democrats enabled Nixon to win that election while warring between themselves; Humphrey wasn't "pure" enough and publicly dedicated enough to resolving the Viet Nam war, so despite all his lifetime of achievements for equal rights etc., he was unmercifully attacked by members of his own party.

Democrats are their own worst political enemy.

[Solly Mack]

37. Show me the bodies

[KG]

38. the yay-hoos are still voting repook, so does it really matter?

[judasdisney]

39. There Will Be Blood -- spoiler

Warning: movie spoiler ahead.

At the end of "There Will Be Blood" (2007), the Oil Man bludgeons the Evangelical Wingnut with a bowling pin.

Their marriage of convenience was doomed from the start.