Micheal Reagan: GOP not his father's Republican party

By James Q. Lynch

The Gazette

It's not his father's Republican party.

Michael Reagan sees glimpses of the “big tent” coalition of Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats his father, Ronald Reagan, put together to win the presidency in 1980 and 1984.

“There are parts of it, but I think what's happened is that its balkanized into little fiefdoms,” the eldest son of the late president said Wednesday evening at a West Liberty fundraiser for Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who is seeking a fourth term in 2010.

His father had an 80 percent/20 percent rule, Reagan, 64, now a radio talk show host, said prior to speaking to about 350 people.

“He understood that politics was the art of negotiation and coming to a determination to accomplish whatever you are trying to accomplish,” Reagan said.

Then party, lacking national leadership, is a collection of issue-driven groups with their own spokesmen “and it's turned into a 100 percent/0 rule where if you're not with me a 100 percent of the time I'm not with you any of the time.”

The lesson that seems to have been forgotten by Republican leaders, Reagan said, that “because his father could build coalitions he lowered taxes, rebuilt the military and helped bring down the Berlin Wall – because he was able to build coalitions.”

Since his late father left the political stage, politics has become far too personal.

“He never made politics personal because he understood that you were going to have to go to those people later and say. ‘Help. I need your help' to do whatever it is you need to get done,” Reagan said.

One of the most poignant tributes to that spirit came from an unlikely source – Alec Baldwin, Reagan said.

“He told me, ‘Michael, tell your family, I bleed liberal through and through and disagree with your father on everything. But what I've come to understand about your father is that he had a good soul. What the world and America is missing today is that good soul. How I wish we had him back.'

“To leave that as a legacy is unbelievable,” Reagan said.