One Reagan quits the Republican Party

By CAL THOMAS

If the Reagan who had resigned from the Republican Party had been Ronald instead of Michael it might have a greater impact, but radio talk show host Michael Reagan's decision to become an independent, at least temporarily, is still significant.

On his radio show last Monday night, Michael said, "The Republican revolution my father began is by all appearances dead, sacrificed on the altar of civility by party leaders more interested in making friends and being liked than in fulfilling the mandate they were given by the voters."

Ronald Reagan was fond of saying he didn't leave the Democratic Party, "the party left me." Michael Reagan said he and the GOP have parted ways for the same reason, "I'm leaving a Republican Party that is rudderless and in full retreat from the conservative values and beliefs my father championed. When the Republicans come back to grass-roots America, I'll come back to the Republican Party."

The evidence seems to support his decision. From retreats on issues such as child care - Sen. Orrin Hatch joined forces with Sen. Ted Kennedy in support of health insurance for children because, said Hatch, he didn't want to give the impression that Republicans "hate kids" - to surrendering on the bread-and-butter issue of tax cuts, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and maintaining the Department of (re)Education, the Republicans are behaving like a party still mired in the minority.

Some Republicans are now apologizing for the way the defeated nominee for CIA director, Anthony Lake, was treated at his confirmation hearings. In fact, Republican senators were doing their job, publicizing policy decisions involving arms sales to Bosnia, questionable campaign contributions and Lake's general lack of intelligence experience.

Republicans are being intimidated by Democrats, who never behaved civilly when they attempted to destroy Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. Nor was there a civil bone in any of their bodies when they drove Richard Nixon from office.

When Democrats are running the show they care little for the feelings of Republicans and conservatives. But on the rare occasions during the past 50 years when Democrats have been in the congressional minority, they have tried to invoke a Rodney King strategy ("Can't we all just get along?") to put the Republican agenda on hold until they can regain the reins of power.

The problem with Republicans is not that they lack manners, but that they lack vision, and they lack what Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in another context, referred to as "cojones" (with the exception of a small band of conservatives that includes House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who said, "There will be no budget without a significant tax reduction.") Either one of these would be enough to wound a party, but both can put it in critical condition.

Republicans in Washington have lost sight of the people, something Ronald Reagan never did. They lust after the approval of the liberal Democrats and their fellow travelers in the big media. They'll never get it, but that doesn't keep them from prostituting themselves in hopes of being respected in the morning.

Harry Truman's wonderful line, about getting a dog if you want a friend in Washington, has been modified. Today, a Republican can substitute for the dog, since so many have become lap dogs.

If Republicans would do what Ronald Reagan did and hold on to their principles while directing their comments to the people - always resisting seeking approval from the big media and the Democrats - they wouldn't have to cave on tax cuts and the rest of their agenda. That's what Michael Reagan hopes his "wake-up" resignation call will do,

In his autobiography, An American Life, Ronald Reagan writes of "a sense of incompleteness" when he left office and of a mission not fully accomplished. He bequeathed that mission to his successors. They have failed him and are allowing the morning he brought back to America to resemble a sunset.

Michael Reagan shares those sentiments. If the Republican Party fails to recall and act on the vision of his father, perhaps Michael will find himself with a lot of company in what could become an exodus.

Los Angeles Times Syndicate