Dakota Beacon

If left to the Republican establishment, the November 2010 election would not have been a blowout but just another humdrum affair. No electoral upset would have taken place. Fortunately, the spirit of Ronald Reagan prevailed in the season of his 100th birthday. He was born February 6, 1911.

Reagan had his detractors from within the Republican Party as well as from outside. He still does.

From Newt Gingrich on ABC January 13, 2008, “We’re at the end of the Reagan era.”

A headline from a November 2008 Time Magazine article upon the election of Obama, “The Official End of the Reagan Era.”

In a March 2009 article Bloomberg quoted Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as saying, “...Get over Ronald Reagan.”

Jeb Bush in an April 2009 issue of the Washington Times said, “...it’s time for the Republican Party to give up its ‘nostalgia’ for the heyday of the Reagan era.”

These are the folks who espoused so-called “big government conservatism,” a contradiction in terms if ever there was one.

So much for what the Ruling Class (Republicans and Democrats) think about Reagan and the conservatism that ushered in prosperity and the great economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s. In truth, Americans do not need a Ruling Class to convince them, against their better judgment, what is best for them. The people know in their hearts what they believe to be right.

Leap forward to the 2010 mid-term elections. The people spoke, and what did they say? Contrary to the wisest pols and pundits, the spirit of Reagan’s principles is very much alive. Were the establishment Republicans and Democrats listening?

The people spoke the language of conservatism. After two years of Obamaism, and all it portends, voters turned on the Ruling Class. There is a major disconnect between the Ruling Class and the people. Congressmen, governors and state legislators of the establishment were removed in droves with a vengeance by the people. Thanks to a grassroots ground swell, Tea Party (Taxed Enough Already) activists, staged a popular revolt. Given the lousy economy, high unemployment and the intentional deprecation of American exceptionalism the revolt is expected to continue through the 2012 election and maybe beyond.

That the voters did not subscribe to or understand some vague doctrine of “reaganism” didn’t matter a whit. What did matter is that a large resurgence of voters subscribed to pro-freedom, smaller-government, Constitutional ideals expressed by the leaderless Tea Party movement.

Conservatism wins every time it’s tried. Look what happened in the Canadian elections last month. Canada is becoming more conservative than the US. In the US, despite the nay saying political elite, the new conservative Republican majority in the US House of Representatives is driven by the spirit of the Gipper.

To make the point, the Obama re-election team is engaging in a charade of conservatism. They bite their tongues while attempting to equate Barack Hussein Obama with Ronald Reagan. Fat chance.

What more fitting tribute to Ronald Reagan and his enormous legacy on his 100th birthday than for his principles to be acknowledged by the voters and emulated by his political opponents.

In his Farewell Address on January 11, 1989, Ronald Reagan spoke these words, “Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which ‘We the People’ tell the government what it is allowed to do. ‘We the People’ are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I tried to do these past eight years.”

President Reagan understood the US Constitution with his heart as well as his head. He had internalized the principles our Founding Fathers had succinctly captured in that great document. In exercising those principles as President, he became a great leader and among one of our greatest presidents.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).