Ronald Reagan on Third Parties

In 1977, Ronald Reagan addressed CPAC.  He talked about building a new conservative movement that would attract both the social conservatives and the economic conservatives.

At the time, many believed that uniting the branches of conservative could be accomplished only with a new party.  In fact, having been alive at the time, I remember stories about naming that new party.  Some wanted to call it the “Whigs.”

Well, Reagan settled the issue in 1977:

Our first job is to get this message across to those who share most of our principles. If we allow ourselves to be portrayed as ideological shock troops without correcting this error we are doing ourselves and our cause a disservice. Wherever and whenever we can, we should gently but firmly correct our political and media friends who have been perpetuating the myth of conservatism as a narrow ideology. Whatever the word may have meant in the past, today conservatism means principles evolving from experience and a belief in change when necessary, but not just for the sake of change.

Once we have established this, the next question is: What will be the political vehicle by which the majority can assert its rights?

I have to say I cannot agree with some of my friends—perhaps including some of you here tonight—who have answered that question by saying this nation needs a new political party.

I respect that view and I know that those who have reached it have done so after long hours of study. But I believe that political success of the principles we believe in can best be achieved in the Republican Party. I believe the Republican Party can hold and should provide the political mechanism through which the goals of the majority of Americans can be achieved. For one thing, the biggest single grouping of conservatives is to be found in that party. It makes more sense to build on that grouping than to break it up and start over.

Rather than a third party, we can have a new first party made up of people who share our principles. I have said before that if a formal change in name proves desirable, then so be it. But tonight, for purpose of discussion, I’m going to refer to it simply as the New Republican Party.

As someone who’s done my share of barking at the Republican party, I have to tell you that Reagan’s words apply today even more powerfully than they applied back when I was a 7th grader at Epiphany. Here’s why.

Jimmy Carter, for all his many flaws then and now, was a capitalist.  He believed in free enterprise.  His greatest flaws were in trying to appease every two-bit dictator with a beef against the United States.  Yes, most of Carter’s economic policies were disastrous, but I’m not so sure they were part of a lifelong ideology of Marxist collectivism.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, has surrounded himself with committed Marxists.  As far back as he will allow us to go, we find evidence of Marxist thinking in Obama’s words and letters.  His CPR interview in 2001 demonstrates clearly that he believes the Constitution and limited government that answers to the states and to the people should be replaced by an expansive government that answers to no one. As President, we have seen Obama’s willingness to flout the rule of law in order to achieve those ends.  He will not subject himself to the Constitutional process which would allow the people and the states to decide the proper role of Washington.  Instead, he will use raw political power to force collectivism onto the nation.

In 2010, those who believe in freedom—whether libertarian, conservative, or otherwise—must band together and elect the rightward-most, viable candidate in every election, from the US Senate down to town council and school board.  We must consolidate our political power to fight the forces of collectivism currently in control of Washington, DC, and many state capitals.

I understand libertarian principles.  But I cannot see a single race for the U.S. Congress in which any libertarian candidate has any chance of winning.  That being the case, the Libertarian has a choice between a conservative who shares his view of freedom from federal government control and a Democrat who would deny the Libertarian even the right to speak his beliefs on the internet.

In 2010, the battle is not between Democrat and Republican.  It is between Tyranny and Liberty.  Every center-right vote must go to a single freedom-loving candidate if we are to stop America’s descent into statism.