Steele invokes Ronald Reagan to argue that the GOP should never look ‘backward.’
Steele invokes Ronald Reagan to argue that the GOP should never look ‘backward.’
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is set to give a speech today at a gathering of RNC officials in Maryland, in which he will call on the party to “focus all of our energies on winning the future.” As part of his call for looking forward, Steele did what Republicans always do and looked back to Ronald Reagan:
Despite those setbacks (or perhaps because of them), Steele will insist that the future of the GOP lies not in looking back but in pushing forward — using the tried and true example of conservative icon Ronald Reagan.
“Ronald Reagan never lived in the past,” Steele will say. “Ronald Reagan was all about the future. If President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward.”
Earlier this month, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said that the party needed to get over Reagan “nostalgia.”
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Ronald Reagan…
also prosecuted officials for using the water torture technique now commonly referred to as “waterboarding”.
Ah, remember when.
What do you say, MikeDog?
Should we prosecute “one for The Gipper”?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:06 amWondering when ConservativeforProgress will excerise his First Amendment Right to say something completely ridiculous.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:06 amMan I love this Steele guy; the hilarity just doesn’t stop.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:07 amThey just don’t get irony do they.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:08 amUp is down. Black is white. Backward is forward. The hits just keep coming……
May 19th, 2009 at 11:09 amRonald Reagan never lived in the past????
What Ronald Reagan is he talking about?
hell, Reagan not only lived almost exclusively in the past, it often wasn’t even a reality-based past.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:12 amI’m seriously wondering if the Republican Party has been replaced by Monty Python’s Loony Party….
May 19th, 2009 at 11:12 amYa know what else is funny here?
At the rate they’re going, the GOOPers will soon be eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act… another piece of legislation they despise.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:14 amMight as well invoke the name of Ronny Reagan… dead or alive everyone representing the GOP is passe! Gingrich, McCain, Cheney, Miss California!!
May 19th, 2009 at 11:17 amRepublican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is set to give a speech today at a gathering of RNC officials in Maryland, in which he will call on the party to “focus all of our energies on winning the future.” As part of his call for looking forward, Steele did what Republicans always do and looked back to Ronald Reagan:
“Ronald Reagan never lived in the past,” Steele will say. “Ronald Reagan was all about the future. If President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward.”
conservative??/k?n?s?rv?t?v/ Show Spelled [kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv] Show IPA
–adjective
1.disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:17 amNow they are going to ratchet up the Star Wars missile defense system as being “forward thinking.”
Tired clowns – all these GOPers.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:19 amROFL, this guy is starting to get crazy, oop’s…Nut cases can be fun to watch…saint ronny was suffering from al’s through his entire term,,nanc ran the white house with the help of an astrolager..Jeebos, I wish these reich winged talking bobble head’s would get just a little bit of their facts straight…Never on a Tuesday I guess, maybe steele need’s to up his own med’s…Blessings
May 19th, 2009 at 11:19 amI wonder what inane and stupid thing ConservativeforProgress has to contribute to this thread.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:20 amYes, Reagan was great, just like Nixon. If they were in politics today they’d be derided as damn liberals and drummed out of the party.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:24 am“Ronald Reagan never lived in the past,” Steele will say. “Ronald Reagan was all about the future. If President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward.”
Ronald Reagan was a brain dead puppet that parroted what he was fed.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:25 amWhat he MEANS is never look back at CONSERVATIVE WRONGDOING. I mean first of all his bringing up Raygu is LOOKING BACK. Hello Steely Dan Raygun is DEAD. Second I heard IT WAS ALL CLINTONS FAULT from conservatives for the entire 8 years of the Bush administration
May 19th, 2009 at 11:26 amWhy don’t any of the Rethugs get fined by the Language Cops for abuse of irony?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:27 amEugeneDebs Says:
What he MEANS is never look back at CONSERVATIVE WRONGDOING. I mean first of all his bringing up Raygu is LOOKING BACK. Hello Steely Dan Raygun is DEAD. Second I heard IT WAS ALL CLINTONS FAULT from conservatives for the entire 8 years of the Bush administration
Ole Steele is just making us dance for him. He may be “jay” – what is Steele’s middle name? Anybody?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am.
LIE-CHEAT-STEELE
The “NEW” G(no)P
New motto of the G(no)P: Team TORTURE!
.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:28 amSteele and the rest of these wingnuts shouldn`t try to hard to look to the future. They way it looks now they dont have much of a future. Good Riddance.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:30 amMicheal STEPHEN Steele
May 19th, 2009 at 11:31 amEugeneDebs Says:
Micheal STEPHEN Steele
Dang, I seriously thought he could have been the troll known as jay.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:34 am…And when Reagan talked about the future, he always mentioned ‘The Gipper’.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:34 amLooking backwards means never having to look backwards.
See, GOPig logic not so hard…
May 19th, 2009 at 11:37 amReagan is also a prime example of why Obama’s rhetoric about not looking at the past (and Pelosi’s “impeachment is off the table” fiat) is so damn dangerous.
When Iran-Contra was exposed there was a lot of yak in the media at the time about how “traumatic” another Presidential impeachment would be (after Nixon) and so despite the fact that Iran-Contra was far worse than Watergate the investigating committee decided that “I don’t recall” was a valid defense.
Because they got away with THAT the Republicans realized they could get away with anything and look what happened.Iran Contra was peanuts compared to the wiretapping, torture, murder, illegal war, theft etc of the Bush administration.
And you can bet your ass, however long the GOP might be out of power, when they or their new iteration get back into power they will look to the past and know what they can accomplish because they know what they’ve been able to get away with–not through their own ‘brilliance’ but because of the chicken$hit cowardice of the Democrats.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:38 amSo the republic fascist party must look to the past in order to see that they should not look to the past as they look to the future.
Just checking. Have I got that right?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:39 amOh, come on 5th — you know that they mean that us “little people” should not look to the past. Forget history, except when they tell you something from history, and believe only exactly what they tell you.
The puppet masters are allowed to look to the past so that they can effectively control things for their greatest profit.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:42 amTweedster Says: “I wonder what inane and stupid thing ConservativeforProgress has to contribute to this thread.”
I’ll give it a go!
Hrrh-hrrrm… ‘When is Obama going to tell Prime Minister HU, “Mr Hu, tear down this Great Wall of China!”?’
May 19th, 2009 at 11:43 amSTEale is funny.
Limbaugh/Coulter/O’Reilly/HanNewty LIVE in the past.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:43 amIm sorry I misspelled HanNewTea
May 19th, 2009 at 11:44 amAll my past indiscretions have been washed away! No looking back at credit reports, speeding tickets, accidents, misdemeanors!!
May 19th, 2009 at 11:45 amDubya who?
BTW if we are not looking back why is STeale channeling Reagan? Isnt he in the past? Way to go STeale!!
May 19th, 2009 at 11:45 amCageyCretin Says: Oh, come on 5th –
What? Did I just post something? Don’t expect me to look into the past to find out what I may or may not have said, for “there be monsters” in the past. :D
May 19th, 2009 at 11:48 am“Ronald Reagan never lived in the past,” Steele will say.
The republican gong show-without-a-gong continues. One act, crazier than the next.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:51 amRonnie Raygun proving that you can spin a mediocre President into a hero if that’s all you got
May 19th, 2009 at 11:53 amconservativeforprogress would say:
“Steele is just exerting his 1st Amendment rights, why are you trying to take away his 1st Amendment Rights?
(How’s that?)
May 19th, 2009 at 11:58 amYou can’t live in the past if you “Cant Recall” any of it.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:58 amSteele: “Back in the good old days, we didn’t look to the past.”
I’m guessing the man just can’t help it.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:59 amGiven what bush did to the country, I’d take ronnie in a heart beat. At least he could read from a teleprompter. Remember when the cons thought that was a good thing? Oh yeah, those were the days.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:59 amThat sounds about right, Bobwurst. You’re starting to scare me.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:59 amMore Steele: “Back then we looked to the future. Maybe if we’d known that the future was gonna look like this, we’d have looked to the past more.”
May 19th, 2009 at 12:00 pmNo, when they look to the future, all they can see is their past, because they have no future.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm“Ronald Reagan never lived in the past,”…
so let’s follow his example by not referring to Ronald Reagan?
What?!
May 19th, 2009 at 12:07 pmIn the future, we will look to the past, so we can know what to do now in the present.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pmIf we had just kept Ronald McReagan’s “Star Wars” plan Darth Chainy could have had his Death Star by now.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pmHrrh-hrrrm… ‘When is Obama going to tell Prime Minister HU, “Mr Hu, tear down this Great Wall of China!”?’
I know this was meant as a joke but…
I have a friend who’s an immigrant from Poland and was there when the “wall came down”. I once asked about Reagans influence in making that happen. After a hearty laugh, he explained that the POPE had way more to do with it than Reagan could have ever dreamed of.
Another friend from East Germany made a similar comment also after a good laugh. Her comments leaned more towards economic failure and threat of revolution however.
I think the only people in the world who believe Reagan brought down the wall are a certain section of Americans.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:11 pmCheney will just have to be satisfied with Reagan’s depleted uranium shells, cluster bombs, and white phosphorus bullets.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:12 pmIf a football team were as far behind as the republicans are, they would be changing their line-up and trading players. And they wouldn’t dig up some stinking corpse to put in at the full-back position. The GOOPers are just plain pathetic (and I’m loving it). Isn’t it funny how they have to leap over the two more recent republican presidents to find their team mascot, though?
As for the not-so-great Ronaldus RayGun, of course he lived in the past! Most of his remarks were lines right out of scripts of those highly forgettable B-movies he was in. But now, it is truly “Bedtime for Bonzo”. It is time for the GOP to just plain STFU, lie down and take a nice long nap.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:13 pmGorbachev claims that Reagan’s blustering and threats delayed the end of the Cold War by several years, because Ronnie kept making the Soviet generals paranoid.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:16 pmAhhh, yes, Ronnie (Bonzo) Ray-gun. That fearless Hollywood witch-hunter who vied with “Tail-gunner” Joe McCarthy in ferreting out all those “communists”.
The brain-dead governor of California who thought that student protests ought to be shot and thrown out off the campuses.
That GREAT liberator who freed prisoners from Nazi concentration camps(his version).
That great sponsor of “Adopt-A-Contra” program. The terrorist organization who he compared to America’s Founding Fathers.
Funded by selling weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages.
An International war criminal who mined Nicaragua’s harbors.
An environmental neanderthal who said trees cause more pollution than factories, thus, we need to get rid of the forests.
The list is almost endless.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:20 pm“Gorbachev claims that Reagan’s blustering and threats delayed the end of the Cold War by several years, because Ronnie kept making the Soviet generals paranoid.”
I’ve read that too.
Afghanistan could be considered the graveyard of the former Soviet Union empire. Another empire could be next.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:20 pmRonald Reagan signed the UN Convention on Torture and had this to say:
Since you can’t prosecute something that hasn’t happened yet, then I guess you could say that Reagan had no problem looking backwards.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:22 pm“The list is almost endless.”
Tinkle down economics?
May 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pmI don’t remember who said it but it went something like this…
Don’t never look back. They might be catching up to you.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pmDruids Dream Says:
If we had just kept Ronald McReagan’s “Star Wars” plan Darth Chainy could have had his Death Star by now.
Uh…actually…NOT! Every President since Reagan has funded Star Wars research and it still doesn’t work.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/052300-102.htm
This country has spend $120 billion taxpayer dollars on over the past 40 years. The only end result has been making certain military contractors very rich. We are no closer to having a program that works now than we did back then.
Hopefully President Obama will stop throwing money down that rat hole.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:28 pm#55
I know. Pretty depressing. They always have money for these insane defense projects that never get used.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:41 pmyou know what reagan could do really, really well?
shitting his pants.
that’s about it.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:08 pmYeah, don’t look backward………you’ll turn into a pillar of salt.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:09 pmYeah … let’s look back on what Reagan said: Don’t Look Back.
Dammit!! I did it again! Maybe I need to listen to what he said again, so I can get it right.
“Don’t look back”
SHIT!!
May 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Satchel Paige.
Republicans can’t look back, because then they’d have to acknowledge that evolution exists.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pmWasn’t that Satchell Paige?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pmedwcorey: GMTA
May 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pmThank you both. And it is still true.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:16 pmHas anybody seen the 2010 Ronald Reagan calendar? Truly a frighting piece of Reaganophila gone horrible awry..
May 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm