tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337017006156178894.post6426879886233049017..comments2023-10-29T07:23:45.326-07:00Comments on Eye on the 9th Floor: Good comment worth reposting- The Real Ronald ReganUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337017006156178894.post-66933048146690699702009-08-27T22:41:51.960-07:002009-08-27T22:41:51.960-07:00Ronald Reagan is a great historical figure and con...Ronald Reagan is a great historical figure and conservative icon because of his long record of opposing tax increases. When running for President, Jack Kemp helped bring Reagan's team along with the supply-side economic theory that he espoused his the rest of his career.<br /><br />To suggest even before then that Reagan was a "tax hiker" or a "proponent of higher taxes" is intellectually disengiuous.<br /><br />Reagan was a Democrat at one time. Reagan was pro-choice on abortion at one time. Reagan was a union President at one time. Reagan, as President (with a liberal Congress) signed budgets that dramatically increased federal spending.<br /><br />However, one would also be intellectually dishonest to use those facts and argue that a good conservative (like Reagan) one must support policies of the old Democratic party like Reagan did at one time. <br /><br />Or in order to be a good conservative like Reagan, one must support abortion rights like Reagan did at one time. <br /><br />Or in order to be a good conservative like Reagan, one must oppose private ballots in union elections as union leaders do because Reagan was President of a union.<br /><br />Or in order to be a good conservative like Reagan, one must support increased government spending on liberal social programs.<br /><br />It's nonsense. It's raised because Governor Brewer made the absurd comment when she addressed the Legislature and laid out her five point plan. Only two points seemed to be brought up repeatedly since that time by the Governor. 1. We can't REALLY cut spending in a meaningful way; and 2. We must increase taxes on Arizona working families by $3 billion in the depths of a recession.<br /><br />BOTH of those positions are positions that Reagan opposed vigorously as he built a record as a conservative that we all admired. He spoke eloquently about the opposite -- fighting the tax and spend mentality that Governor Brewer has championed.<br /><br />And to suggest to be a good Republican one must "support the Governor" is absurd. She was never elected Governor. She has no mandate to fight spending cuts and increase taxes. It's a lesson we should have learned from our mothers in childhood. "But Mom, ALL the other kids are doing it!" "Well if all the other kids jumped off a cliff would you do that too?"<br /><br />Not my quotation, but it fits: "Unity is the siren song of tyranny, not the call to genuine progress."Candymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02764322835674283870noreply@blogger.com