Don't know if it's receiving wide attention yet, but "long-time
Reaganauts" Richard Allen, Frank Donatelli, Peter Hannaford, Jack
Kemp, and Craig Shirley have declared themselves "Reaganauts for
McCain" and they are circulating this "Memorandum for Our
Conservative Colleagues":
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
A Memorandum for Our Conservative Colleagues
Some thirty years ago, we and thousands of other grassroots
conservatives helped a man then deemed a "maverick conservative"
take on the established order in Washington and the Republican
Party. Ronald Reagan's run for the nomination in 1976 nearly
succeeded in denying a sitting president another term.
In the mid-1970s, the GOP was crippled by corruption, and
betrayal of conservative principles had brought the party to its
knees. Expectations of a firm and principled stand against the
Soviet Union had been converted to the misty-eyed policy of
"detente." The reigning Republican Establishment considered Reagan
an interloper, an ill-informed and a somewhat primitive and
uninformed one at that.
While the Establishment embraced "detente" with the Soviets,
Reagan rejected it as unrealistic, a flawed and dangerous approach
to a powerful and determined adversary. The Reagan concept, founded
on the principle of peace through strength, was that the United
States possessed the resources, human and financial, and the
determination, ultimately to persuade the Soviet Union and its
allies to give up the quest for world domination. Reagan believed
that American power must be wielded cautiously but decisively in
the pursuit of our national interests. That power, he believed,
emanates from the American people, and not from a few powerful
elites.
In short, Reagan challenged the reigning Establishment and in so
doing, remade the Republican Party, at least its base, into a
movement that for thirty years challenged the status quo rather
than merely embrace it.
In the intervening years since the Reagan presidency, a new
status quo, inconsistent with mainstream conservative principles
and actions, has taken hold in the Republican Party, promoting
practices, programs and principles inconsistent with the Party's
character and traditions. Just as Ronald Reagan did in his time,
John McCain now challenges this Establishment "orthodoxy."
The Old GOP Establishment said terrible things, untrue things,
about Ronald Reagan. Some in this new Establishment are also saying
terrible and untrue things about another maverick conservative,
John McCain. Reagan was a threat to the Establishment; so, too, is
John McCain. Reagan did not waver, holding fast to his basic
principles. John McCain now soldiers on, espousing conservative
principles. Some conservatives disagree.
Because the US corporate income tax rate is uncompetitive and
counterproductive, and causing job loss, John McCain backs a
corporate tax rate of 25 per cent, spurring investment in equipment
and new technology. Lowering corporate income tax rates will
strengthen the demand for dollars and fight inflation and recession
simultaneously. He wants to make the Bush income and investment tax
cuts permanent and repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax. John
McCain's pro-growth stimulus plan is precisely what our economy
needs today.
Senator McCain knows that true conservatism is rooted in the
people, which is why in the recent candidate debate at the Ronald
Reagan Library, he declared himself a "Federalist." McCain knows
what the Founders and Reagan knew; the ultimate goodness and
dignity of American citizens is the repository of what makes
America great and special.
In 1974 Ronald Reagan addressed the very first Conservative
Political Action Conference held in Washington. Reagan brought as
his guest someone of whom both he and Mrs. Reagan had grown very
fond; a young American Vietnam War hero, Lt. Commander John McCain,
who had been so terribly tortured while in captivity for six years
in Vietnam.
As long-time Reaganauts, we are proud of our work over these
many years, helping to advance conservative principles, and as
"certified" Reaganauts, we are proud to stand with another old
friend of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, John McCain, who is our best and
safest choice in 2008. Some fellow conservatives find it hard
forgive past positions on campaign finance or other matters. When
you stop to reflect, however, with whom--among those out there--are
we going to be more secure in terms of domestic security than with
John McCain? Who has greater understanding of and experience with
the foreign policy and national security challenges we will face
than John McCain?
We urge you, fellow Reaganauts, to join in supporting a man of
character, conservative temperament, a "maverick" in the Reagan
tradition who has and will continue to stand up to the corrupt
elites in Washington, and will not join them.
That man is John McCain.
