Days of Change

Day 1194 – The Moral Majority

Rachel Maddow clone Chris Hayes was hosting yet another forgettable MSNBC show this mooring and mentioned that Republican group Freedomworks went around to Tea Party groups in their early stages to convince them to remove their focus from social issues and focus on economic ones. It’s like the Romney campaign was already in action.

Hayes’ implication was that the Tea Party is just a bunch of social conservatives that were manipulated by GOP front groups. I think he lost a page of his talking points. I thought Freedomworks created the Tea Party, not that they recreated it. Also, most of the MSNBC editorial staff think that social issues simultaneously include being anti-abortion and believing Obama is a gay foreign Muslim. There’s a reason Northern Democrats hadn’t won a presidential election in the two generations before Obama’s election. People in this country have values.

Liberals love to say that Reagan would not be electable in the overly libertarian Republican Party of today. It’s true that some politicians are trying to out-Reagan Ronald Reagan. There is one critical element of Reagan’s governance that is forgotten by nearly everyone. The only major Republican figure who seems to grasp the ideas of free markets, uncorruptable government and a strong moral stand is Sarah Palin. in fact, her mention of Reagan at CPAC reminded me of my post two years ago about Reagan’s 1975 CPAC speech.

I support Mitt Romeny because he will win ugly. He can’t get the Sarah Palin treatment because there’s nothing to him but money and family. He will believe whatever is convenient. He will be a reliable Republican because that’s the side his bread is buttered on. Conservatives are ready to embrace him because the choice is no longer between Mitt and Gingrich, but between Mitt and Rick Santorum.

Most of all, Rick Santorum represents what Ronald Reagan was about. Both were fiscally conservative, but they had a soft spot in their hearts for the poor and their plight. Sometimes they spend more government money than they should have. They also have a moral belief system that tends to piss off the amoral who can’t quite shake that feeling of being judged, so they transfer being judgmental to them.

Now I fear I am wrong. I put my hopes on a Tea party Congress. The reality is that Congress obeys its master, the president. The Democrats suicided themselves for Obama. Could the Republicans do the same for Mitt Romney? Obama is showing his bold, liberal colors for the moment. Is he planning for a candidate of pale pastels?