The GOP's Great Failure...And Opportunity

Two polls give us a startling glance into something that can be considered one of the GOP's greatest failures, as well as one of its greatest opportunities.

Ronald Reagan isn’t just a Republican thing anymore.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters say the Republican Party should return to the views and values of the iconic 40th president of the United States to be successful, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republican voters believe a return to the two-term president’s views and values are the road to success. Just eight percent (8%) disagree.

Among unaffiliated voters, 61% say the Republican Party should return to Reagan, while 23% think the party should move away from those values.

Even 29% of Democrats think Reagan is a good role model for the modern Republican Party...

Now, consider this:

Ten days into his presidency as the details of his historic economic rescue plan become clearer, Barack Obama still enjoys the confidence of a majority of voters that he knows how to handle the struggling U.S. economy.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters give Obama good or excellent marks – 29% say excellent – for his dealing with the economy so far. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 25% rate the President’s handling of the economy as poor.

So, what are we to make of these two polls? The first one indicates that Ronald Reagan is highly regarded, even by a significant minority of Democrats. Many people believe that getting back to Reagan is a good thing. The second poll, then, reveals that a majority of the country thinks that Obama's current economic proposals are the correct thing to bring us out of this recession.

Problem is, Obama's economic proposals are directly contrary to what Reagan did.

Reagan believed that government was the problem, not the solution. He believed that the way to solve problems was to get government out of the way and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the free market. Obama's policy proposals are just the opposite - they penalize success and the free market, providing only layer after layer of oppressive government regulation, government intervention, and government control. Obama is proposing precisely the same things that Carter implemented...the same things that Reagan was elected to correct.

This, then, is the GOP's greatest failure: America remembers and loves Ronald Reagan, but they don't know why. For so many people to have so completely forgotten the things that made Reagan's presidency so successful is an indicator of how badly the GOP failed to follow in his footsteps.

The opportunity, then, is just as great: America already loves him, and just need to be reminded of why. It's far easier to restore knowledge that has been forgotten than to create new knowledge. If the GOP can restore the message of Reagan and the policies that made him so successful and beloved, they have success waiting just around the corner.

There's my two cents.


Sources:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics2/majority_see_reagan_as_republicans_way_back_to_power
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/january_2009/majority_remain_confident_in_obama_s_economic_moves