Pawlenty: "...but Ronald Reagan was President a Long Time Ago..."

[brooklynite]

Setting aside the question of whether Pawlenty gets drummed out of the Party for heresy, I've been wondering if the Reagan mythos is finally coming to an end, even for Republicans. By the time Obama's second term ends, Reagan will have been out of office for nearly thirty years, and a growing share of the electorate will have no memories of him. Is he finally going to fade into the the woodwork with politicians finding other icons to pledge fealty to, or do the Republicans not have any other rallying cries available?

[mwb970]

1. And the funny thing is, he wasn't that great to begin with!

Republicans always swoon over big, barrel-chested, "manly" guys like St. Ronald - John Wayne would have been an even more popular wingnut president. Or Chuck Norris!

[Thrill]

2. Why do they brag about Reagan anyway?

I never understood this nonsense. The guy destroyed the middle class. Much like Dubya

[last_texas_dem]

5. Because he singlehandedly ended the Cold War, to hear them tell it,

all the while firing those air traffic controllers and bitching about welfare queens to a national audience, and all of those other things FReepers would do if only they could be king for a day...

[BumRushDaShow]

8. And we still haven't really recovered from that air traffic controller firing fiasco

[Ilsa]

11. Don't forget RR cutting mental health programs and kicking out

mental health patients on the streets to fend for themselves and live under bridges.

I tend to think that if he really saw the disaster that his budget cuts would bring, he would have backed off. I think he was too closed-minded to accept that people were living out on the streets because of circumstances they couldn't control. I think RR's aides told him that the homeless WANTED to live that way. I'm no fan of RR, but I tend to think that when he looked at things stuation by situation, he was more compassionate. But this is just my opinion based on several behaviors of his that I noticed over the years.

[TuxedoKat]

15. He didn't seem to care

or do anything about it when they started showing up in the streets of Washington, D.C., unfortunately. I remember this very vividly because I worked in DC during the Carter and Reagan Administrations. There were fewer homeless people in DC during the Carter years, and I rarely saw them. After Reagan came and cut back on spending, etc., homeless people were all over the downtown area where the government building are. It was really a very marked difference.

[Ilsa]

17. I don't know if he didn't care, or if his Alzheimers was beginning

cause him to "black out" and forget the bad news. I also blame his handlers and GHWB.

[zbdent]

16. because his running mates, the Ayatollah & the 50+ hostages,

and the gas prices, created a "landslide" victory ...

[4themind]

3. When/Where did he say that?

It's interesting, that he would say that, but I think that most critical thinkers (so that would exclude many republicans) understand that different ideas are desired/required for different times. I also did like what he said yesterday about Palin's "Drill baby Drill" not being an energy policy (someone's pissed he wasn't picked I bet, lol)

[brooklynite]

4. Yesterday at the Republican Governor's Conference (clip on MSNBC)

[4themind]

12. Thanks -nt

[ErinBerin84]

10. he's never going to live down

being the McCain surrogate for Meet the Press the Sunday after Palin was picked, and having to claim that managing a home budget is a suitable qualification for dealing with the economy.

[Crankie Avalon]

6. I don't think so. The Repubs will be changing history to pump up Raygun more than ever...

...as people who actually lived through the era and know better become fewer and fewer, modern Repubs will see it as their chance to cement the myth that at least one of their own wasn't such a complete disaster.

[DrDan]

7. just protecting his legacy

just trying to defend his fantasy economic policies by saying things were different back then. "Things have changed."

BS

[bridgit]

9. Hannibal crossing the Pyrenees, now that 'was a long time ago'...

[hatrack]

13. Any American 27 years of age or younger was born during or after Reagan's administration

No lasting memories of "Morning In America" in that crowd - they're just too young.

Also, anyone who could have participated in the election of 1980 as a first-time voter would have been born at the tail end of the 1950s or early 1960s.

Collectively, you're talking about two substantial groups of voters - nearly anybody under 30, and everybody else born between the Baby Boom proper and the Shadow Baby Boom. The first group doesn't really remember Reagan at all, and the second consists of people who were born in the first great downdraft of the Baby Bust, and who are at or approaching fifty anyway.

Remember that there was only one age bloc that voted for McCain overwhelmingly against Obama this time around - generally 55+, but especially 65+. They're the Reagan "Revolutionaries", there aren't enough of them, and they're not going to be around that much longer.

That dog won't hunt.

[TheCowsCameHome]

14. The GOP is living in the past, so it's a good fit.

Sort of the Pre-McCain age.