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« on: August 06, 2015, 07:58:31 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 8-5-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Memo to the 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates
Take a Lesson from Ronald Reagan
By Mark Alexander
Aug. 5, 2015
“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.” —Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 1 (1787)
Fox News and Facebook are hosting the first national Republican presidential primary debate1 Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio — six months ahead of the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016 with the rest of the primaries concluding by mid-June.
The event moderators are Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace — who I rate, in that order, as the top three hosts of any news network (despite Fox’s hyperbolic and now-ubiquitous “Fox News Alert” banners – see Aesop’s “boy who cried wolf” fable).
There are now 17 Republican candidates announced2 — a large field bringing broad constituencies to the table. However, the Fox debate will only include the top 10 candidates, based on the average of the five most recent national polls conducted by Bloomberg, CBS News, Fox News, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University.
The prime-time debate will include real-estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The seven remaining candidates in order of poll ranking are former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. Though they did not make the prime-time event, they will participate in a debate featured earlier on Fox.
According to Fox’s own polling of self-identified Republican primary voters, the top three candidates are: Donald Trump3, who has expanded his lead to 26% (up from 18% in mid-July); Jeb Bush4, who has remained steady at about 15% (he was ahead of the pack in June); and Scott Walker5, who is down to 9% — hemorrhaging his support to populist Trump.
However, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has Trump at 19%, Walker at 15% and Bush at 14%.
Suffice it to say that polls at this stage of a primary are not particularly relevant. I equate them with the weather in Alaska: If you don’t like it, wait 15 minutes.
For the record, I don’t often cite polls because of the “Pollaganda Effect6” — media polling designed to produce an outcome that reflects a particular bias. There are objective and reputable polling organizations, but even those polls reflect more fragrance than substance, more about name recognition than qualifications. Of course, the only poll that really matters is the one that will take place on November 8, 2016.
While we will provide you with all the best quotes of the debate in our Friday morning coverage, here is a preparation tip for the top contenders.
Follow in the footsteps of the most successful conservative president of the 20th century — Ronald Reagan7.
In his 1989 farewell address8 to the nation, President Reagan explained why he was re-elected with 49 states and 525 electoral votes: “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation — from our experience, our wisdom and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”
In fact, some two centuries earlier, Founder Thomas Paine wrote, “A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.” Reagan understood this and that is why everything he worked for was wrapped in the pursuit of Liberty9.
Reagan also understood that Liberty is colorblind10, and he promoted it across ethnic, racial and party lines to every quarter of America.
I suggest the Republican candidates review Reagan’s clarion call for Liberty in the most famous of his early speeches, “A Time for Choosing11.” Referring to the emergence of the Socialist Democratic Party12, he echoed the commands of Captain John Parker at Lexington Green in 1775: “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.”
Reagan concluded that speech asserting, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.” |
