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PSA: Ronald Reagan’s Response to 1976 Loss

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 26 Comments

THIS IS NOT SATIRE
As a public service, ScrappleFace presents the following brief video of Ronald Reagan’s response to his failure to secure the Republican nomination for president in 1976, and this link to the text of his remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference of 1975, as well as a few brief quotations below the video.

REAGAN at CPAC: “Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?”

“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.”

“I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.”

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Tags: Conventions · Non-Satire · Politics · Video

26 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Beerme // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    Well said at the time and quite appropriate, today. John McCain and this defeat is what you get when you try to cater to the middle to pick up votes. If the people don’t vote for conservative principles, and you lose as a result, at least you kept your soul.

    Republicans cannot say that after this election. I hope to see this change the party but I am not confident it will.

  • 2 We Fought, We Dreamed, and The Dream Is Still With Us // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    [...] Tip: Scrappleface.) Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]

  • 3 Ms RightWing, Ink // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:56 pm

    Snazzy threads and lots of cigarettes. Ah, those were the days. Like that checkered suit and checkered shirt.

    Regan was a class act. Always has been and always will be. McCain? Well time to put him on the shelf and put Palin on the ground where she can knock the Bog O through the universe in four years. By then everyone will be tired of the tin horn senator-well, come to think of it, some of us already are.

    ‘Nuff said

  • 4 Ms RightWing, Ink // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    “?” lost

  • 5 camojack // Nov 5, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    Some say we had to endure the Carter years to get Reagan. I don’t know that I necessarily buy into that theory, but now we will have to endure the Obama years; whatever comes afterward, only time will tell.

    Palin in 2012? Maybe. I can’t see McCain trying again when he’s 76…

  • 6 SGT USMC 1ea // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Ooh Whas ha’pennyin, the souspence pounds in my head? Who won? I am just going to assume it was like a marathon and the Kenyan did.

    My company benefits elections cutoff date was today. I selcted no medical coverage and the company gives me 1000 bucks. Why should I pay for insurance if Obama will give it to me for free!

    Deus est Semper Fidelis

  • 7 gafisher // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    SGT USMC 1ea, stand by for your Obama Health Care Kit — one adhesive bandage, a needle-and-thread “Suture-Self” set, and an aspirin tablet. That’s for a family of four; if your Domestic Housing Unit is smaller you and several neighbors will have joint custody of a kit, on the “Spread the health around” principle.

  • 8 conserve-a-tip // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Gafisher, you are bad…”spread the health around?” groan

    Perhaps the Republican party will get the message. It is time to lay out what this party really stands for and put people in place who believe the real principles. This mishmash “centrist” group has got to go.

    Personally, I think the best thing that the Republicans could do would be to go home to their districts and deal directly with the people, doing business from home offices via conference tvs/computers and telephone and only hitting D.C. when a vote is necessary. Really get down and dirty with the real people of America! Talk about impressive. People would take notice.

  • 9 Ms RightWing, Ink // Nov 5, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    It didn’t take long did it?

    Bouncer shot at downtown Akron bar after Obama party

    http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/33909394.html

  • 10 RepublicanAttackMachine // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:41 am

    If I may as to be so bold, “Oh Great Ott”, why have I had a recent post ENTIRELY deleted because of calling a certain troll “scum”. This one word caused you to delete the entire post, instead of just the one word.

    [Deleted a repeated vulgar reference from someone else's comment (along with the original), and the complaint that the ScrappleFace editor shows bias in the process of deletion.]

    Your answer will help me decide if I want my family to continue to use your “family friendly” site.

    [Editor's Note: Feel free to stop using the site. Time does not allow for a careful parsing of every comment posted. Random spot checks, and helpful reader alerts, have kept this site fairly free from the pollution that clogs others. Although I don't recall why your particular post was deleted, I do know that I don't have time to edit all comments. The worst kinds of comments are those written by our ideological colleagues, and professing Christians, who continue to believe that personal attack is a viable form of public discourse. There are times when this is so troubling, it makes me reconsider having a comment section at all. Only the believers who conduct themselves with grace and respect, keep the doors open.
    For a people who have seen the power of God to change lives, it seems we never expect that God will do it for anyone else. And so, instead of persuasion, respect and love, we determine to beat on our adversaries until they die and go to Hell. All of the commenters on this site are actual persons, often with families, children, jobs, ailments, heartaches, dreams, golf handicaps and physical handicaps, minivans (and Harleys), grocery lists, utility bills, and for the most part, American citizenship.
    One wonders what might happen if we all stopped referring to guests who are currently ideological opponents as 'trolls', stopped baiting them with insults, and instead endeavored to understand their thinking, so that we might better explain to them how conservatism provides a superior perspective on any given issue. Are we just trying to win some bloodsport battle (a low-tech video game for political geeks), or do we endeavor to improve their lives by enlightening them? In other words: bless your enemies, don't curse them...and pray for them. If we don't do that, we simply assume that anyone who doesn't yet espouse conservatism is either a fool or a devil. Consider that the writer of this website was once a full-fledged liberal feminist, leaning toward socialism. But time, respect, reason and mostly life experience demonstrated the fallacies of that charming theoretical construct, as well as the truth and beauty of conservatism. Perhaps we should give our opponents space to consider a similar change without shame, rather than backing them into a corner so that (despite their own doubts) they feel they must fight to avoid humiliation. What sells on talk radio as entertainment, does not prevail on the more personal level of written dialogue.
    ]

    As for your last thread, ” [Scott Ott] Barack Obama is MY President “, –he will be my President too, (ALTHOUGH, I will NOT allow my beliefs to be compromised by him), and I will pray for him because GOD commands it, but judging by the few comments there, (mostly from trolls), and the “pat on the head” the trolls gave you, don’t you feel maybe SOMETHING you said might be wrong?

    [Editor's Note: No.]

    If we want America back, we are going to have to rise up and TAKE IT BACK!

    “Kissing up” to the other side has NOT worked, and we saw yesterday, it is working EVEN LESS with each election!

    Maybe YOU and John McCain feel better with the pat on the head the left wing lib/trolls gave you, as for me, it is time to fight back!

    THAT is what Ronald Reagan would do NOW!

    P.S.: The trolls are ALREADY talking about both of you again, laughing about how “easy” you both are.

  • 11 J. Cougar Melancholy // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:09 am

    RAM,
    You have a family?! Sweet Jebus, I’ll bet you’ve raised the little angels to be quite the trailer park terrors!

  • 12 Yes we can … | The Daily Scroll // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:19 am

    [...] Ott offers encouragement to conservatives grieving over Tuesday’s results by sharing the following video: Related [...]

  • 13 mig // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:20 am

    For those of us who have friends or family members who insisted that Obama was not pro-abortion as they happily voted for him, Obama didn’t even wait a single day before making his first pro-abortion appointment. More to come! Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who has a 0 percent pro-life voting record.

    cc: document forgery - NO kidding!!! lets start with a his green card.

  • 14 gafisher // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:28 am

    As in the past few years, the angry and destructive left, with the enthusiastic assistance of the media, had so embittered the mood of the nation in 1976 that it is unlikely any Republican could have won the Presidency. The Democrats could have — and did — run an incompetent half-wit and the election was still theirs.

    Ford was a sacrificial Candidate nominated to an impossible campaign which, rather than looking to the future, was required to defend the results of the worldwide and domestic chaos left by the Kennedy and particularly the Johnson Administrations, much of which remains problematic to this day, and some of which, incredibly, actually played a role in this year’s election, over thirty years later.

    Then as now, Republican Administrations and the very concept of Republicanism took the blame for damage caused by their Democrat predecessors, and now as then the Democrats will fail to deliver on their outrageous campaign promises and their supporters’ unreasonable expectations.

    Once the Democrats have played at governing for a term or two the country will come to its senses and ask the adults to come back and clean up again. Hopefully the kids won’t have set fire to the playroom in the meantime.

  • 15 mig // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:12 am

    gafisher- They will be blaming Bush until the die. If they ever took responsiblity for their actions, they wouldn’t have screamed for two elections in a row about voter fraud and then in this one when there was ample proof from Acorn to the contrary, that this was our first fair election in 8years.

  • 16 MargeinMI // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:37 am

    Yes indeedy. Scott is one CLASS ACT!

    wv: sea-level action…..starting from the ground up?

  • 17 JamesonLewis3rd // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:54 am

    One day, in the not-so-near future, someone will find a forgotten closet-the interior of which will be coated with the accumulated dust of forgotten decades.

    The Constitution of the United States of America is, by virtue of having been the first to go, beneath and behind hundreds of similarly quaint relics of The American Dream (circa 1776-2008). AI scanning devices will eventually uncover it and find it to contain many unique concepts. Also, The Declaration of Independence will be discovered nearby with certain unalienable rights and their Endower redacted with an X-Acto blade; its condition will cause much disconcerted speculation by the AI databases as to what and Who.

  • 18 Darthmeister // Nov 6, 2008 at 9:32 am

    Ronald Reagan had it right, you don’t compromise your fundamental beliefs nor do you suddenly discover those “beliefs” as you head down the last stretch.

    It is true Obama had to tact way to the right (”no taxes on the middle-class”, distancing himself from the whackjobs on the left that he hung with, etc.) to appear centrist, and it did hoodwink a significant number of swing voters which gave him the victory. But in a presidential race where both candidates are trying to appeal to the “middle”, the Democrat will always win because the national socialist media will give them more “legitimacy” in their coverage.

    “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.”

    BTW, our governor Blago will have to appoint someone (i.e. a Democrat) to replace Mr. Obama. I wouldn’t be surprised if he appoints himself since he’s done such a miserable job as the governor of the People’s Republik of Illinois, has just about alienated everyone here on both sides of the aisle with his arrogance and incompetence and has zero chance of being re-elected since any Democrat running against him in the primaries would probably win. But then again, Blago could appoint our resident despot, Emil Jones, who presently runs the Senate but is conveniently “retiring”. In either case Illinois will be poorly represented by two partisan Democrat hacks which would include Dick Durbin of course.

  • 19 Hawkeye // Nov 6, 2008 at 9:35 am

    Scott,

    Thanks for your post and for your “Editor’s Note” as well. They are a good reminder that tomorrow is another day, that we must stay true to our principles, and that we must “explain to (liberals) how conservatism provides a superior perspective on any given issue” with Christian dignity.

    God Bless You Good Sir!

  • 20 RepublicanAttackMachine // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    jcm re #11, Funny how black folks like to use the “trailer park” insult against whites along with the KKK insults about places like Indiana being a “hotbed” of KKK activity.

    I guess your type of “race card players” will be history since Indian went for “the black guy” on Novenber 4th, or the “trailer trash” references, since my neighbor, (who is black), is the ONLY one in my neighborhood who has 5 vehicles, (3 of which have not run for years) and mows his lawn about twice a summer.

    But please do keep telling your stereotype lies about us “white folks”.

    It makes us, “-understand, respect and love- you so much more when you continue to use your blasphemus word “jebus”, when refering to our LORD and Savior.

  • 21 RepublicanAttackMachine // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Scott, please accept my apoligy for some things I said yesterday. It was NOT a Christian thing to do. At the least, I should have sent my feelings to you through email, instead of here publicly.

    For that and some things I said, I am sorry.

    What I do still feel is, that references to blasphemous names being called when talking about GOD, JESUS CHRIST, and The Holy Spirit, should NOT be allowed. That is where I would draw that line.

    I also believe America, (as a whole), has been dupped, over decades into believeing that ANY thing is alright to be said, no matter how vulgar or distasteful, in the effort to bring about public discussion and “free expression” of ideas.

    “Hockeypuck”!

    If these things cannot be said in Church, schools, etc, they should be just as off limits in society, or at least be shameful and chastized when they are said. I am not talking about EVERYTHING, rather, the most vile, pornographic, or the like. If people continue to “compromise” and try to “understand” their side, (when GOD has ALREADY told us it is wrong), they WILL, be openly saying these things in our Churches, and schools, (I guess they are already there), and we will have to sit and remain silent to these things GOD is so against.

    Just my feelings. I KNOW GOD can take the worse sinner and cleanse him, but I do NOT think HE expects us to bend over backwards, while letting them say anything, in order to do it.

    I also know that we as Christians are held to a higher standard, but I do not believe it is right to chastise ONLY the Christian while letting others say anything and not get the same treatment.

  • 22 everthink // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    JCM, are you black? If so, stay off the idiot’s lawn.

    RAM, you hate filled rascal, is “jebus” more blasphemous than “gosh” or “golly”, you sound one of them jihadists to me. If so, you must be a Madrasa drop-out too!

    ET

  • 23 everthink // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    like

  • 24 ep29030 // Nov 7, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    This clip reminds us why Reagan was such a great President: (1) he deeply believed in the freedom and opportunity-and risk-that America held for all its citizens; (2) he could articulate that freedom so every citizen on the street corner could relate to it and believe it for themself; (3) he did not compromise his beliefs to become president, or increase his polling numbers. He alone could see how capaitalism itself could win the nuclear arms race. Who thought that free enterprise itself would stop the madness, rather than negotiations at a table filled with Soviet Communists? Certainly not the media: they thought he was near lunatic when he walked away from the negotiations. But Reagan understood, and saved the planet from self-destruction. Our nation now needs common people who see a greater purpose and rise up to take hold of it, for the benefit of their fellow citizens and their posterity.

  • 25 Obama Elected President - Here’s Your Chance to Gloat | Political Humor by Radioactive Liberty // Nov 8, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    [...] zero tolerance for moderates, bipartisianship, reaching across the aisle, or any other forms of ideological weakness. We have spines of titanium plated steel, forged in the foundries of Hell. We draw our might by [...]

  • 26 sojourner // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Thanks, Scott, for showing us that “hope” isn’t just a campaign slogan that was masterfully hijacked by the other side, and that “change” is indeed possible since the Reagan presidency rose from the ashes of the defeat of ‘76.

    Thanks also for refocusing on being charitable to our enemies, to not try to treat all who disagree with us as Rush treats those who haven’t gotten it yet. Rush is great at what he does and I’m very glad that he’s helped the US steer more towards the right, but it’s folly to treat all who disagree with us with contempt. “The strong shall bear the infirmities of the weak.”, not the strong shall be disgusted with the weak.

    You’re a true blessing to us, Scott. May God richly bless you!

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