Reply #13: Reagan's message and techniques are not fungible [View All]

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Reaganesque unity was ethnic unity... white unity achieved through a resentment mythology.

It is not accessible to us... we cannot harness the awesome power of racially divisive demagoguery because we are not a ethnically homogeneous party.

The best communicator and conciliator this party has produced in my lifetime was Bill Clinton. Clinton and the DLC went about as far as you can go in adopting Reaganism to good causes. Many say they went too far.

Unlike Reagan, Clinton did not have the option of achieving big electoral majorities through racist appeals. And I doubt Senator Obama has that option either. The only thing Bill Clinton did "wrong", in comparison to Reagan, was representing black people.

Bill Clinton was, and is, a vastly superior politician to Ronald Reagan. He was playing an intrinsically weaker hand.

And the Republicans don't have the Reagan coalition option either. In 1980 America was a very white country. Today it is only about half white. The racist Reagan coalition no longer exists because we have added so many non-anglo voters since 1980.