Someone who agrees with the party on four out of five issues is 80 percent a friend, not 20 percent an enemy.

by Mike

This intrinsic quote appearing in the title was made by former President, Ronald Reagan. It exemplifies his style of reaching across party lines to Democrats and even the more moderate members of his own party. Moreover, it has resurfaced and been watered down to the level of bumper sticker logic when applied to present day politics.

To begin with, no one on either side of the political aisle has one iota of the political optimism or character that Ronald Reagan possessed. Nor do any have the style required to form such delicate alliances which were inspired out of a certain degree of loyalty to the man as well as the country, not political striping. We might be reminded of his courage when after being shot by would be assassin John Hinckley, he calmed those around him by famously quoting Churchill, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

Double, no triple, our troubles and we’d still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.

-Ronald W. Reagan

The reality of a situation is always debatable. But the overall perception by those who lived through the Reagan years was this, the man presented himself not only as someone who represented the people of America but someone who was America. His almost innocent and dreamlike belief that all that was good in the world was American was the cornerstone of his Presidency. This was turned into a reality through sheer force of will and conviction.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

-Ronald W. Reagan

Politicians, nowadays, attempt to present themselves as nuanced and cosmopolitan, capable of dealing with even the most difficult policy decision their office might require. Nothing could be further from the truth. The art and poetry of classical leadership has been reduced to a reliance upon number crunching and demographic statistical analysis.

In a interview with an unnamed Republican official the Politico asked why so many prominent Republicans had thrown their support to the NY-23 Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, he responded.

“We’re dealing with data, not hopes and dreams.”

Subsequently, data did not predict the Hoffman’s meteoric rise, which has eroded Scozzafava’s support, donations, and even split the top ranks of the GOP. Data did not count or predict the anger displayed by some of the constituency directed at a Republican candidate as a variable or factor. Nor has data explained exactly what to do with this passion or how to focus it.

Likewise, the importance of political analysis should never be discounted or thrown to the wayside. But an infantile dependence upon it as the mother of all political victory is obscene. People have needs and one of their needs is not for the government to be nannying them into complacency. Supporting Republican candidates who are nothing more than “Soft Liberals” because their data is somehow indicative of a path to victory is sheer lunacy. Moreover, if the GOP is so fond of polling data maybe they ought to be looking at this one.

Back to the title. Ronald Reagan may have felt that if he had 80% in common with someone that they were 80% friend. However, he also said, “I don’t know about you,” said Reagan in 1975, “but I’m impatient with those Republicans who, after the last election, rushed into print saying we must broaden the base of our party, when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.”

To the more historically challenged, this current debate about the Big Tent GOP is, as you can see, nothing new.