Reagan and the Modern Republican Party

The Hill: Reports on the debate within the Republican Party how to regain the success the Party had under Reagan, do they go for ideological purity or a party that allows for different shades of Republican thought. At the end of the day Reagan understood you had to win, thus the Reagan success with the fabled Reagan Democrats, in other words the over taxed over looked middle class, tough on Foreign Policy, moderate on social issues and very pro USA. When looking at Reagan you have to go beyond the spin, yes there are some fundamental values that are not open to debate, small government, low taxes, a strong defence, also allowing individuals to follow the American dream. The above is strategy, but we are talking about tactics, Reagan could be tough in talks from Democrats to the USSR, but he was open to pragmatic talks on how to reach his goals, he was willing to compromise up to a point, as long as the policy was kept on his road. Thus lets recall some simple facts, Reagan was elected in 1980, he smashed Carter, in that first term he equalled LBJ on his management of Congress, he built up the military, cut taxes, used the US military to show that Vietnam was in the past. Thus from the economic recession at the start of the 80's we saw a economic boom that lasted for over a decade. In his re-election in 1984 Reagan destroyed the political career of Walter Mondale, the VP to Carter. In total Reagan took 49 states and 525 Electoral College votes, no one so far has beaten that, in the second term we saw the end of the cold war, Reagan and Gorbachev found that they could deal, thus USSR started to leave Afghanistan in 1988. On the political front Reagan saw his VP, Bush 41 become his successor in 1989, Bill Clinton's VP, Al Gore could not manage in 2000 that due to the Impeachment of Bill Clinton over his affair. After Reagan left office we saw the Republicans take over Congress following the principals of Reagan, the question one has to ask will Obama even win a second term in 2012, Obama has shown the PR skills of Reagan but has not learnt the message of Reagan was also important in making Reagan a beloved President.