n/t

you folks to just give Sarah Palin time?

I make the point that those who reason their way to conservatism from liberal and/or Democrat roots often make dedicated contributors and leaders to the movement because poignant experiences and deep study got them there. And Sarah Palin is a galvanizing force for those in this category.

Sarah Palin was never a Democrat as far as I know.

But since you make the comparison to Reagan I think we should put apples with apples. Palin is 45. At age 45 Ronald Reagan was still at GE, still 10 years away from serving even one day as governor at age 55.

-E

You are quite right: if she had any real ambition for the White House, she should have stayed in office, beaten back the phony ethics charges, and eaten the media critics for a late-night snack.

If she resigned for the sake of her family, she is brave and to be admired for placing them above her personal ambition. If she resigned to run for the presidency, it was premature. Not taking a second term would have been difficult enough.n

Other possible candidates to keep in mind other than Palin: John Boehner, Thaddeus McCotter, and Michelle Bachmann.

Are they as well known? No, but that can be changed.

with qualifications similar to those? I sure don’t. I see a lot of angst here toward several potential candidates such as Romney, Palin, etc. who, admittedly, don’t have those qualifications.

Definitely … not me.

REAGAN IS REAGAN. His face deserved to be sculptured in Mt. Rushmore along with the other 4 great American Presidents.

I used the word PHOENIX … signifying that a politician can lose/fail but can still return back with a vengeance.

But Reagan’s political career was not free of losses and failures, too.

0. Screen Actor’s Guild Director at the age of 50.

>>> Not yet an elected politician? (Not very successful in politics in his early life, don’t you think? My take: He was still confused on what to believe in even at his 40s.)

1. He was fired by GE in 1962 (as claimed by some historians) because of his political views. A loss.

>>>He’s only starting to hone his political views in his late 40s and early 50s?
>>>He always believed in small government but still didn’t know what it was?
>>>Thanks to his GE stint which gave him a chance to study and make a more cautious look of his beliefs and political persuasions.
>>>At 50, he CHOSE TO QUIT his former party… the Democratic Party and abandoned his love for FDR’s New Deal. Democrats also wrote numerous obituaries against Reagan. Most of his Hollywood friends and backers turned their back on him.

2. He campaigned for Goldwater in 1964 with his speech “Time for Choosing”. Good speech but Goldwater lost badly. (A loss, nonetheless.)

3. Became a Governor at 56 years old in 1967. (He Won! FIRST BIG Point for him.)

4. Just 2 Years after his first term as Governor, he ran in a Republican Primary in 1968 against Nixon … and he badly lost. (A Loss. Because of his Presidential bid, a huge attempt was made by the Democrats and some Republicans too to recall him … almost successfully in 1968.)

>>> He was really that ambitious, right? He really had the nerve of going against Nixon. But Good for him.. Thank God for his personal ambition – that’s very conservative to me. And Thank God that MSM at that time was not as bad and malicious as MSM of today.

5. He run for re-election in 1970 and he won against Unruh at 52.8% vs. 45.1% . (HE WON! SECOND BIG POINT FOR HIM!)

6. He tried again in 1976 to run in a Republican primary … and lost to incumbent Pres. Ford. (Of course, it’s expected since Ford was the incumbent… but a loss nonetheless.)

My Dad used to tell me that many Republicans at that time thought that Reagan was already politically-dead as a Presidential Aspirant given his 2 failed bids in a Republican primary. Some say that the Rs in general would never approve him as their nominee.

THEN, LIKE A PHOENIX, (thanks partly to Carter’s VERY POOR performance and very low popularity) REAGAN WON AT THE AGE OF 70 in 1981. HATS OFF to the President!

>>> He was already a Private Citizen Reagan for almost 6 years.
>>> He was supporting local candidates, writing against the onslaught of liberalism, speaking at fundraising events, etc.
>>>Many had written him off in their books. Thank God for Reagan’s resiliency and determination. He wrote his own history.

In the end, Reagan proved himself as one of the Greatest Presidents of All Time…. he gave us the modern Golden Age for Conservatives and the Fall of Communism (internationally; but somehow, he missed that the local communists and socialists inside America were breeding and mutating.)

Palin at 46? I’m not sure yet whether anyone can write her failed Political Career at this early stage of her life.

NOW, TO MY POINT:

1. I don’t think Sarah Palin or any R/C politician would like to be another Reagan. Reagan had his own share of harsh losses and failures too, both politically and personally, and not just GLORIOUS VICTORIES. Those failures were challenges given to him by his God. He learned to accept them and use them to strive harder. In return, His God rewarded him with unique successes. Thus, Reagan’s career and history is very unique. As any like-minded conservatives, I think that Sarah would like to be her own person, not a copycat of another. That’s the essence of conservatism, which is individuality.

2. But learning from Reagan’s story, I will support Palin to rise up again like a PHOENIX in any form of endeavor she really wishes to take after her resignation (a major failure on her part in addition to her failed VP bid), Please make no mistake: My prayers for Sarah also applies to all other “true” conservative politicians out there especially the young guns like Jindal and Cantor.

3. But are we sure that Sarah really wants to run in a Presidential election someday? I really have no idea.

I never thought about it in such terms, but you are exactly right. They are all around us now.

In his farewell address Reagan mentioned what he saw as an insidious threat to our way of life… the cultural undermining of the founding values through leftists media and educational institutions, though he did not say so quite as directly.

He saw the future, somehow, and knew that it was not going to be prettty.

-E

birthplace of the nation, home of Adams, to effete socialists.

I don’t know about you Swamp-Yankee, but I was very quiet and almost apologetic for my views initially. The overwhelming self-righteousness of Massachusetts liberals is a reverberating echo chamber. And because many are Ivied and professional, they just assume that what they think must be so. It’s a mutual society of self-congratulation.

I agree with you. Knowing their mindset helps a lot. And I often have to keep my sources quiet. If I read a really great Ann Coulter piece or find insight in one of Glenn Beck’s observations the point is much more readily accepted without attribution, unfortunately.

The bad liberals know they’re tyranical. They know that it’s about their own power over the “lesser” masses. I put Obama squarely in this category.

But many liberals, the ones I think we can reach, have been deprived of basic economic, historical, and philosophical education. It’s like the drug problem… part medical disease, part crime. The “good” liberals, like so many of my dear friends and family members, believe themselves to be compassionate, good people, who are moved by the plight of human suffering. They want to help and see government as the answer. They’ve been entranced by a media that demonizes capitalists, educators who teach victimhood, and a culture that promises quick fixes.

They need to be educated. They need the arguments to be framed in terms they can understand. Compassionate conservatism would have been fine… if it had been either compassionate or conservative. But that’s a whole other post.

My point is…the time has come to re-brand. I have fired a gun. I grew up Christian. But these are not the cultural cues that play in the areas that we need to penetrate.

These people need to be saved from themselves. In their faces won’t do it. They get nasty. Logic won’t do it. They decompensate. This war will only be won on cultural grounds. Once palatable culturally, the message will sell itself.

We must cede no ground.

Equitare

Please reword that to spent and for you I provide you the following reference in the United States regarding taxation.

“Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”

&

“AMENDMENT XVI
Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”