Bill Saracino
June 17,  2004

“We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all”.  Ronald Reagan – 1965

Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, former Assemblyman Brooks Firestone and the usual suspects from the “new majority” plutocracy want California to adopt the system that produced Klansman David Duke as one of two final choices for Governor. Sounds crazy, but there is method to their madness. 

Our wannabe oligarch’s system has all candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot for all voters in the “first” (primary) election.  The top two vote getters for each office, regardless of party, would then advance to a “run-off” (general) election.  The predictable result: urban voters would see November elections with two Democrats as their only choices, while elsewhere in the state voters would find two Republicans as their only choices.  The plan effectively guarantees that third party candidates would never again appear on a general election ballot.

The moderates’ real interest lies in reversing unfavorable internal GOP arithmetic. Most Republicans are conservative, so conservatives win most Republican primaries. Therefore most Republican office holders are conservative. In order to achieve their real goal – eviscerating the conservative GOP base – our nabobs must elect more Republicans who talk and vote like Democrats. To do this, they must do away with these pesky primaries where only Republican voters choose Republican standard bearers.  Voila, the Louisiana system, allowing Jane Fonda, Cruz Bustamante and Susan Sarandon a voice in reshaping the Republican Party.

There are many fatal flaws in the system. But Republicans serious about their party’s future can focus on just one: had this system been in place in 1966, Ronald Reagan would never have become Governor, and hence would never have become President.

The spiritual forbearers of today’s moderates tried mightily to defeat Reagan in ’66, something they now conveniently forget.  In Brooks Firestone’s case his literal forbearer, father Leonard, followed up his 1964 exertions against Barry Goldwater with a 1966 primary effort warning the GOP that dangerous, intolerant extremists were attempting to take over the party. Care to guess who Firestone and his fellow 60’s vintage moderates had in mind? 

Happily for America and the world, Republicans rejected the moderates’ scare tactics and ideological pabulum, thereby launching Reagan’s career.  But had the Louisiana primary system been in effect in 1966, things would have been far different. San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, Reagan’s primary opponent, would have moved heaven and earth to get Democrats to vote for him, with a pitch to help derail the wild-eyed radical Reagan.  Organized labor, already furious with the former union (Screen Actors Guild) president’s “anti labor” positions, would have trooped their voters to the polls for Christopher to punish Reagan.  The November election most likely would have been between George Christopher and Pat Brown. And Ronald Reagan would never have been heard of again.

More serious than any qualm about our moderates’ lack of political spine, more serious than any disagreement on political issues, is this fact: the moderates’ plan would have prevented Ronald Reagan from ever holding elective office.  

Though their scheme is too late to stop Ronald Reagan, it takes direct aim at future Reagans and all conservatives of principal. For truth-in-advertising purposes this proposition should be labeled the “no more Reagans” initiative, as that is precisely what it is.

Reagan’s words of wisdom from 1965 still ring true today. We don’t need more candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition. Turning the party over to the moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all. Republicans who value Ronald Reagan’s legacy must vote against the “no more Reagans” initiative.  We must, I dare say, win this one for the Gipper.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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