Yep. I agree with THIS via Andrew Sullivan. Ronald Reagan would be considered a RINO today and probably draw sneering comments from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others. How do I know? I was at that time a Democrat who became a Reagan Democrat. My late Uncle Louis Gandelman of Los Angeles told me in 1981 right before he was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor that he was betting Ronald Reagan would reach the White House one day — and he was not a conservative Republican.
Further evidence: in his must-read book “Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents” guess who historian Gil Troy includes as a moderate? YES: Ronald Reagan, due to his willingness to c-o-m-p-r-o-m-i-s-e on issues about which he strong felt. Reagan didn’t always get all he wanted but by compromising he got a lot of it and by being open to compromise and coming across as a lockstep, knee-jerk ideologist people who didn’t agree with Reagan were willing to at least give him a serious listen. Which meant he could slowly change some minds. And build a coalition.
Which he did.
Also: people forget how Ronald Reagan was often blasted by conservatives when he was in office because he compromised. But all of that is forgotten now since it gets in the way of him being an icon — sort of like Colonel Sanders is for KFC.
Except today all that is being offered is right wings.
Rino graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.