There is the fascination with one of our presidents. I an not talking about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or even John F Kennedy. I am talking about Ronald Reagan. The great communicator. There is a healthy and unhealthy fascination with this former president. In fact, Reagan is quickly becoming an American legend much like JFK.
The difference is that Reagan actually lived out his full term as president where JFK had his term cut short by a few bullets form assassins rifles. (Yes I said assassins as in plural. But that is a topic for another post at another time.) We got to see Reagan perform through out his presidency so there is no speculation as to what he would have done. We know what he did. We know what he tried to do.
The fascination comes because Republicans, I should say true conservative Republicans, are looking for a new Ronald Reagan. That is not to say they are looking for a clone. We all know Reagan was a once in a lifetime person. He had character that cannot be duplicated. What conservatives are looking for is someone who has the same ideals and beliefs that Reagan held. Someone who has those basic core principles of true conservatives that can break the ranks and lead out in the open.
But conservatives lament the fact that even though there are many who would qualify, they will not take the torch and run with it all the way to the White House. In fact many of them won't even take the torch to Governors Mansions in their own states. They wont run that torch to the State Houses of their home states. They even shy away from bringing that torch to their mayors offices or city or town councils.
Why is this. Ann Coulter made a point in her column “How to keep Reagan out of office.” There is a link to this column below. She correctly identified the major reasons why a Reagan like candidate is so hard to find. We can thank our heir apparent for the Republican side for that.
McCain/Fiengold but a big cab bash on free speech in this country. What it has done is made it nearly impossible for an upstart to make a serious run for any major public office. It severely reduces the ability of candidates who have not been in the seats of power already to raise capitol to run against incumbents at nearly all levels of government.
We know it takes millions of dollars to launch a state or federal campaign for office. But unless you are a self made millionaire or billionaire, you have no chance at raising money to battle the entrenched machine of the incumbent. Even if there is a vacated seat, you still must have the cash in order to fend off the well financed and well place candidate from the other party.
You have to have a name first. Well the best way to make a name for oneself is to run for office at lower levels of government and work your way up. But wait, you can't just run for an office of worth. You have to grab the attention of your local or state party. Then they have to be willing to back you. But it takes time because of the limits placed on us by campaign finance reform. This leaves the job of bringing those with promise out into the open to the press.
The media has more power than ever in deciding who our candidates are going to be because of the new laws on the books. These laws make it very hard for an individual to promote any candidate. But if they are a part of the so-called legitimate press and media, then they can talk up or talk down anybody they want as often as they want.
That is how we got McCain as our candidate of choice instead of a true Reaganite. There are only two ways to stop this. One is since we have the Internet, we can spread the news of promising people and get them to run for office and support them. Ron Paul has proven this type of support can be had. This type of grass roots can be done. Although Ron Paul was not the conservative choice, he did prove that a new conservative Reagan could garner a strong base of support in a short period of time. Plus, because of the Internet, each and everyone of us could in fact become a part of the media by launching on line publications with news and commentary. In short, each of us can become our own media business thus nullifying the McCain/Fiengold bill.
Second, and best of all, is to stick to the letter and spirit of the constitution of these United States and have this stupid law repealed and pass a law that would prevent future laws of this ilk from being passed ever again.
The people of this nation, with the Internet, opportunity to grab their country back. We have the ability to effect change at the grass roots level by circumventing the current process. We have the ability to show that the main stream media does not have a monopoly on news of the day nor do they get to chose who we, as Americans, have as choices for high or low public office.
It is time we take back our elections process from the incumbents, the major media (which has a very liberal bias) and others in power who wish to limit your choice and access. I say each and every one of you should start your own media company on line and begin to broadcast the truth. And that will bring out the talent that we need to turn our country around and bring back our Constitution as our Founding Fathers wrote it.
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