The Lessons of 1977

Noemie Emery has written the cover story for the June 1 edition of The Weekly Standard, and it's available for reading online at TWS's website. My recommendation is that you read it now, and that you should read it again and again.

Gov. Sarah Palin is mentioned in the article. Quoting Ronald Reagan on how the Republican Party should seek out the social conservatives the Democrats had rejected and "welcome them, seek them out, [and] enlist them, not only as rank-and-file members but as leaders and candidates," Ms. Emery notes that:

"Sarah Palin, Wasilla moose-hunter, would have been eagerly welcomed by Reagan, and would never have left him unnerved."

But far more important than telling us what we already know, i.e., that Gov. Palin would have been appreciated by The Gipper, are the lessons recounted in Ms. Emery's op-ed which came straight out of the Ronald Reagan Play Book.

Change an issue here and a few details there, and you have an excellent strategy by which Gov. Palin could accomplish what Reagan did - rally the demoralized factions of the Republican Party, attract independents and blue-collar Democrats suffering from buyer's remorse, and defeat a sitting Democrat president and his allies in Congress who over-reached by attempting to govern by embracing leftist dogma instead of real ideas.

Yes, we live in a different age than did Ronald Reagan, and the world has changed. But Reagan's principles are as valid as ever. The abandonment of these principles is the main reason the Republican Party finds itself in its current predicament. Reagan offers it a way out. The first capable and charismatic leader who will follow the Reagan road map can lead the GOP and the nation out of darkness. Will that leader be Sarah Palin?

- JP