Republican need leader to follow

Article by Dave Osborn, from NaplesNews.com;

 

NAPLES — Ronald Reagan succeeded as president because he was able to work with friends and foes, his son says.

Michael Reagan called his father — whose birthday was Wednesday — a great leader, something the Republican Party has lacked in recent years.

Reagan will speak at a dinner Saturday in Naples.

"Conservatives, or Republicans, always seem to need a leader to follow," Reagan said in a telephone interview this week from his California home. "When they don't have a leader to follow, they're all over the map.

"There's no one to stand up and say, 'Stop, get behind me.' "

Reagan, 67, will speak at the annual Lincoln-Reagan dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Naples. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. dinner.

"Mike's a good friend of mine and just a great guy," said Sam Saad III, a Naples city council member, who helped to organize the event.

Political pundits have weighed in about the Grand Old Party since Republican Mitt Romney lost the presidential election to Barack Obama, a Democrat, in November.

Reagan said he was not surprised Romney lost because the former Massachusetts governor did not have a message.

"He didn't reach out to his own party," Reagan said. "He was too insular in all of this. Obama has a great machine of get-out-the-vote. He had a message, whether you disagree or agree, he had one. Our side didn't have one.

"The Republican Party is not fearful of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party is fearful of itself."

Reagan pointed to Republicans and Democrats in late January agreeing to immigration reform that would grant a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

A bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators, including Marco Rubio, R-Fla., unveiled plans in late January to overhaul the country's immigration policies. Some Republicans have criticized the plan, saying undocumented children of immigrants should not be allowed to remain in the U.S. even though they've grown up here.

"Do you really think Ronald Reagan would take those kids, send those children back to their country of origin? He really wouldn't do that," Reagan said.

"What he would do, for example, is pull people into the White House and discuss it. He'd say, 'Let's pass the things there's no debate on and get that done.' "

Reagan criticized President Obama, saying he doesn't work hard enough with those who disagree with him. When the president invited House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to a golf game last year, Obama later held a news conference blasting the GOP, Reagan said.

"It's the president's job to find people and unite to find that common ground," he said. "And arrogance does not sell the day. Ronald Reagan didn't look for the areas of disagreement, he looked for the areas of agreement and used that as the steppingstone to move forward."

Reagan said he addressed a group of more than 400 Republicans before Thanksgiving in West Palm Beach.

"I asked all the blacks in the room to stand up. Oh, there aren't any," he told the group. "I asked all the Hispanics in the room to stand up. Oh, there aren't any. Therein lies the major, major problem."

Reagan said he then told he GOP gathering: "The only thing the immigrant community hears from your party is leave."

He said many GOP candidates mentioned his father's name and legacy during the previous election cycle but they too often don't practice what his dad preached.

"You need to embrace Ronald Reagan, not just talk about him," Reagan said. "And we're not that way, really, anymore."

People often ask him what the former president was like away from the spotlight, Reagan said.

"He was the same morning, noon and night. He was a happy guy," he said. "You never saw him angry. He never really raised his voice.

"He treated everybody equally. He didn't look down to people, he looked at people and spoke to people. Ronald Reagan made friends out of his enemies and not enemies out of his friends."

For information on how to book Michael Reagan for your next event, visit PremiereSpeakers.com/Michael_Reagan.