I know this guy. He is a St. Cloud blogger. We have had many conversations and he is all in all a nice guy. However, he is definitely a soldier in the Reagan delusion.

http://liberalinthelandofconservative.blogspot.com/search/label/Gary%20Gross

....they continually whine about how the Republcan Party has abandoned Reaganism, but little do they realize that the George W. Bush Administration is what Ronald Reagan's would have been had Reagan had a Republican-controlled congress. It's the ideology that's the problem, and what is happening now is the inevitable consequence of (deeply flawed) conservative "principles".

When I saw the words: "How is the view from the gutter" I thought about how some of the posters on Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE) is getting to be.

I can roll with punches but, a nightly diet of wallowing in the mud doesn't make much sense to me.

It does helps to have a sense of humor, a longer range perspective, a few years of experience, and some wonderful music.

Take a gander at Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE) to illustrate what I mean. This kind of stuff has been going on for quite a while.

California Conservative explains that the misfortunes of the modern GOP is due to their abandonment of "Reagan's principles."

Well, that's a hoot. Reagan had no principles, that is in part the explanation for his popularity with conservatives. He came in promising to balance the budget, lower the tax burden of Americans, to reduce federal deficit spending, to shrink the size and power of the federal government, to practice a strong foreign policy, etc. etc.

Instead he ran an unprecedented deficit, raised the tax burden of Americans, increased deficit spending, expanded the size and power of the government, and negotiated with terrorists. None of this is principled; the loyalty to Reagan is to his empty promises, not his performance in office.

If Reagan had acted on the conservative principles he articulated, he would not have survived his first term of office, because America is a liberal democracy and democracy could not survive a "truly" conservative government. Fortunately for us, Reagan had no principles--but he was able to persuade a large segment of white America that he *did*; and that was the secret of his political success and his current popular veneration.

The modern GOP is at a disadvantage now. Like Reagan, they have never had any real "conservative principles;" that is all too obvious to an objective observer. During the years out of power and the early Gingrich years in power, they could practice the Reagan method--the unprincipled actors could successfully convince a plurality of the audience that they were conservatives. But after more than a decade of corruption and empty conservative promises, the credibility of the "conservative principle" charade was gone, gone from everyone who was not already a conservative proto-fascist. The problem was that once you obtain power, as the GOP did, people will be able to tell whether you really are principled or not. Republicans never were; in power or out of it.

So it amazes me that people who are smart enough to type can still maintain that Ronald Reagan and the conservatives of his era were "principled." They weren't,and they could never have come to power in the United States if they'd held to a truly conservative program. (Conservatives of today will not return to power if they turn conservative principle into effective action, and they know it. Conservatives in power have always known that turning the conservative rhetoric into actual policy would end their political careers and the prospects of the people who elect them; they pretend otherwise because "conservative principle" is what their rank-and-file wants to hear.)

"Talking like a conservative/campaigning as a conservative/posing as a conservative" is not the same has "sticking to conservative principles." But in the "follow a fuehrer" minds of the rank-and-file conservative voter, the two behaviors are indeed the same.

When you read Republicans right now, they speak of "rebranding". "Rebranding" is about lies and more lies. American have had enough of Republican lies.

When there were no weapons of mass destruction and no prior-to-the-war connection with Al Queda, America knew that Republicans had lied about the war.

When people were dying, even documented on television, from standing water after Hurricane Katrina, Americans knew that Republicans lied about providing any safety and any good government.

When pets died from Chinese pet food, with ingredients that were rated for human consumption, Americans knew that Republicans lied about trade, jobs and product safety.

When we are approaching a trillion dollars of additional federal debt, Americans know the Republicans lied about balancing budgets and limited government.

When we found that many innocent people have been killed in Republican mandated punishments, Americans knew that Republicans lied about caring about life.

When we found out about torture at Abu Ghraib and torture at Guantanamo Bay, Americans knew that Republicans lied about respecting law and civil rights.

When we found out about that all communication, all financial records and all library cards of every American were examined by the government with NO prior evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever, Americans knew that Republicans lied about respecting law and civil rights of every single American.

With lies like these, the wonder is not that Republicans are being defeated in votes, the wonder truly is that is any American left who still wishes to be called a Republican!