Reagan would be happy

There is a lot of talk lately of media pundits and bloggers that conservatism is dead. I would like to contend this could not be further from the truth.

It is true that some republicans have made some bad decisions in the past few years that put the party out of favor in the polls. But it was not because the party was too conservative.

About a year ago the cover of Time magazine had a picture of Reagan with a tear running down his cheek. The message was Time they believed Reagan would be unhappy because his conservative movement was voted out of Congress with the republicans during the midterm election in 2006.

His adapted son, Michael Reagan, said that is hog wash. He said his dad would be happy. He would be happy because the conservative movement is going strong. Proof of this is that the democrats won the 2006 midterm elections not because they ran as liberals, but because they ran to the right of republicans -- they ran as conservatives.

Sure Americans feel gloomy about the war, but that doesn’t mean they want to lose.

Reagan would not be crying. Repubs lost in 2006 not because they were getting too close to Reagan’s conservative ideals, but because they were getting too far away.

Conservatism wins elections. A good candidate who is conservative nearly always beats a good liberal candidate. Why else do you think Obama and McCain are not honest with their liberal views.

A good example is George McGovern who ran twice against Nixon as an anti-war liberal, and Walter Mondale who ran with the platform that he would raise taxes, and John Kerry who ran on an anti-war liberal agenda.

Of course Barry Goldwater lost, but that was because the democratic candidate did a better job of using the new media of the time. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush in 1988, and George W. Bush all won running as conservatives. Bill Clinton won twice running as a conservative democrat, even though he turned into a liberal as soon as he was elected, and neither Bush governed as a Conservative either despite running as one.

Yes, Bill Clinton ran as moderate. To win an election, democrats have to run as conservatives, and republicans have to prove that they really are conservative. Dole failed. Gore was too liberal, and so was Kerry.

And this is why Conservative republicans worry about McCain's chances of winning. But, then again, he is far more conservative than Obama, who is running to the left of McGovern.

Why is this? It’s because Americans love traditional American ideals. They are scared of all the things liberalism is forcing on them like abortion, activism, judges forcing their views, increased taxes. People are afraid that some day soon they’ll go to the corner market, the bank and the post office and no one will speak their language.

High taxes and increased government programs are created because liberals want control of your money. They don’t trust what you might do with it. They don’t trust you.

Conservatives believe you are smart and can manage your money better than big government can. When you have money left over, after taxes, you save and invest. Businesses save and invest in new equipment, new buildings, and, as a result, hire more workers.

When there is a problem, say there are too many poor, liberals say, “Where did the Federal government go wrong. Do we not offer enough help? Do we not create enough jobs? Do we not tax the rich enough?” On the other hand, conservatives say, “That person has access to a free government education, there’s an array of help wanted signs all down the street, that person chose not to take advantage of what America offers.”

Liberals think government is the solution to all problems, yet their government programs keep making the problems worse. They want to take money from the hard working people and give it to the poor. If that worked, poverty would have been solved when Robin Hood was written.

Conservatives believe the way to solve poverty is through the individual. You have the power to improve your lot in life. America has created opportunities for you, now it’s up to you to take advantage of it. It’s via this traditional American ideal that America has prospered. Liberals want to take that away.

Therefore, decreased taxes on the rich creates jobs. The top 50% pay 98.5% of all the taxes, so yes, the rich will get tax cuts. It’s economics 101.. The rich and upper middle class are not stupid. If you raise their taxes they will not create jobs. They will not invest in new equipment and new buildings when government is increasing taxes because they do not want to pay the taxes. It’s that simple.

Here’s a good example. In the late 1980s the government increased taxes on luxury items in order to get more money from the rich. What happened is the rich simply stopped buying luxury items. The government ended up making less money after the tax increase and had to rescind the bill.

Once the tax was back to where it was, the rich started buying luxury items again.

The same happens with income taxes. When you increase taxes, you will have a temporary hike in dollars into the government. But, as Jimmy Carter well knows, as taxes go up, as government spending goes up, as wasteful government programs go up, as government regulations go up, the economy ultimately tanks. Or, you might say, it reaches the point of no return.

The people feel the pain.

The people want the country run as they would run their houses. They are willing to make sacrifices when the economy is slow; they are willing to cut spending when economy is slow. And when the economy is going good they want to save and invest, so that when it’s slow again they don’t have to scrap for money.

They except nothing less from the government.

So, when the American public voted a republican congress that did nothing to stifle a growing government out of office, Ronald Reagan would be smiling. However, the democratic Congress has yet to do anything conservative to warrant that vote.

Despite this, Ronald Reagan would be smiling today. Time magazine got it wrong.