"I'm not a Barry Goldwater Republican; I'm a Ronald Reagan Republican," he said.It's an odd comparison Senator Lindsey Graham made this week, working his way through meetings with Teabaggers and the talk radio outlets, zigging off his previous zags that so annoyed the 'baggers and several county GOP clubs.
The interview in which Senator Graham made the point is here.
Ronald Reagan launched his political career with a legendary speech supporting Barry Goldwater for president in 1964. Goldwater was a military reservist: Reagan played a soldier and airman in films.Graham seems to mark Reagan as a trimmer, willing to compromise and deal with Democrats. In one of the stranger episodes in the interview Graham cited Reagan's amnesty legislation for illegal immigrants as an example of his willingness to compromise, and in the next breath said Reagan was wrong to do so.
Graham's attempt to distinguish between Republicanism and libertarianism deems to defy rational understanding. Senator Graham's interview is worth listening to as an example of how conservatives parse their bona fides almost into invisibility.
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