A Stupid Reagan-Palin "Comparison"

Ahh, I have to hand it to The New Majority, oops! Now known as the Frum Forum, to beat a dead horse. But Rob Bernstein seems to think that former President Ronald Reagan, never "went rogue" and so embraced a "big tent" and seems to forget the whole history of the ascension of the Great Man. And of course it is meant to slam the Frum Forum's favorite whipping gal, Sarah Palin.
It seems that Mr. Bernstein seems to forget that the whole 1976 presidential campaign was the ultimate "Going Rogue". After all, Mr. Reagan was leading an insurgent candidacy against a very unpopular sitting Republican president, Gerald Ford. On issue after issue, there was more than a dime's worth of difference between Mr. Reagan and President Ford. And, Mr. Reagan came within a few delegates of becoming the 1976 Republican presidential nominee.
In the pseudo-right's attempt to marginalize Mrs. Palin, people like Mr. Bernstein come out with such things as Mr. Reagan, rightfully, opposing a very restrictive measure on the 1978 California ballot that would have banned homosexuals from teaching in public schools. It was not because Mr. Reagan supported the gay-rights agenda. It was because he thought it was unwarranted government intrusion. And he was right. And I think that Mrs. Palin would have also opposed such a measure.
And suddenly, because Mr. Reagan supported what were moderate to liberal Republicans in general elections, he never spoke in support or opposition during GOP primaries. It was not necessarily that he supported such Republicans as Lowell Weicker, Charles Matthias, Charles Percy, John Heinz. Mr. Reagan let the Republican electorate duke it out and supported the winner. That was just Mr. Reagan's approach.
In what is a cluttered post, Mr. Bernstein cites the famous quote Mr. Reagan made to a group of evangelical Christians in Dallas, Texas during the 1980 presidential campaign:


“I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you!”


Then Mr. Bernstein cites Mr. Reagan supporting illegal alien amnesty in 1986. Which was a bill of goods that was supposed to have enhanced border enforcement. And of course it did not happen. Then Mr. Bernstein says that Mr. Reagan supported nuclear non-proliferation because he signed arms reduction, known as START with then Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev. HELLO?! Arms reduction was a hallmark idea of Ronald Reagan. He did not "sign on" to anything. Mr. Reagan was the architect of nuclear arms reduction. It was Mr. Gorbachev that signed on. The only citation of Mr. Bernstein can make is the one where Mr. Reagan opposed the 1978 anti-gay teacher initiative.
Mr. Bernstein seems to forget that Mr. Reagan spoke often and loudly in defense of human life, from womb to natural death. After all, Mr. Reagan wrote one of the most moving pieces on abortion ever written by a sitting United States president. And he understood that it was the courts that made unfettered access to abortion the law of the land and that the courts would end up overturning or affirming the abominable Roe v. Wade decision. Maybe Mr. Bernstein would have mentioned that it was then-Gov. Reagan that signed the then most liberal abortion law in California that changed his mind on the subject. But, that would not fit in the narrative that Mr. Reagan was a "pragmatist".
So, we get down to it for Mr. Bernstein.
Sarah Palin is not a "big tent" Republican. One one the reasons is her support for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative party candidate in the infamous New York state 23rd congressional district special election that occurred earlier this month. In Mr. Bernstein's world, it would have been better for Mrs. Palin to have supported very liberal Republican-appointed candidate Dede Scozzafava. Mrs. Scozzafava was to the left of the eventual Democrat winner, Bill Owens. Mrs. Scozzafava was the most liberal Republican in the New York state assembly. These facts do not matter to Mr. Bernstein. Mrs. Palin's support of Mr. Hoffman took him from four percent to only 2,500 votes from winning the truncated special election. Seems like Mrs. Palin had better instincts than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Oh, and Mr. Bernstein trots out the big lie that this congressional district has been a Republican one for over 100 years. Even a commenter had to point out that fallacie. Here is Chekote's point:

4 Chekote // Nov 22, 2009 at 11:59 am
Asked about the Democratic victory in a district the GOP has controlled for over a century,
Correction. The Dems held this seat several times during the last 100 years. The last Democrat to hold this seat prior to the recent election was in 1993. Check it out yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_23rd_congressional_district
To many times this site repeats Democrat talking points without hesitation. I say this as a fan.

OUCH! The commenter points out the obvious. That the Frum Forum is a site more interested in bashing conservatives trying to get a message out there than articulating themselves.
Case in point is that Mrs. Palin only gets support from social conservatives. Funny that Mrs. Palin as Alaska governor was not the darling of the social conservatives. In fact, Mrs. Palin was not liked by the establishment. Mrs. Palin supported a candidate in the New York state 23rd that was also supported by the Club For Growth, not exactly social conservative central. Mrs. Palin ran a conservative Republican administration as governor in Juneau. But that just gets in the way of Mr. Bernstein's talking points.
I think that David Frum and his sycophants over at the Frum Forum are just damned jealous. Only absolute political junkies have bought any of his books. If he were not a speechwriter in the Bush 43 first term, he would still be a nobody. And, it appears that he wants to be a nobody. And so does Mr. Bernstein.
It would be wise to realize that so much of what is being said about Mrs. Palin now is what was said about Mr. Reagan before and even when he became president. It is what liberals and self-loathing "conservatives" seem to like to do.
Stop trying to make Mr. Reagan out to be some moderate when he was a conservative. And please, stop demonizing Mrs. Palin because you bought into left-wing talking points. It would behoove you and the critics to actually look at Mrs. Palin's record rather than accept so-called conventional "thinking".