SHOULD WE USE RONALD REAGAN AS THE YARDSTICK?

BY: DAN CLEMENTS

Speculation has been flying around about whom John McCain will pick as VP? And pundits have been saying that he needs to pick someone that is more like Ronald Reagan so he can capture more of the conservative Republican vote.
Even though Ronald Reagan was the first president I voted for, and he was the most conservative politician to come down the pike for a long time, we still should not compare our politicians today to any politician of the past. Why? Because the bar set by politicians keep changing. The Republican Party is no longer the home of true conservatives and Ronald Reagan would not recognize it today as the same party he fought for through the 70’s and into the 80’s. The reason I’m picking on the Republican Party and not the Democrat Party is, the Democrat Party left conservatism behind around Woodrow Wilson’s presidency and never looked back. The Republican Party for many years had touted that they where the home of conservatism and the ideas of smaller government.
This Presidential election cycle has shown the true nature of the Republican Party. In my short political life of 28 years, I have never seen a more liberal slate of politicians run for the supposed conservative Republican Party! The only ones who even came close to being conservative where, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, and possibly Fred Thompson. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, are the most liberal Republicans I have ever seen. And you ask how I came to this conclusion? I have compared them the U.S. Constitution and the founding documents of this country and found them wanting (not the documents but the men). Ron Paul was the only one running that is the true conservative, because he used the U.S. Constitution as his standard and guide. But Ron Paul will not give up his standing in the Republican Party and run on a third party ticket, what a waste!
The Constitution Party picked its presidential nominee April 26th, Chuck Baldwin.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on Chuck Baldwin:
In 1980 and 1984, Baldwin worked in the Florida Moral Majority to carry the state for the Reagan-Bush electors. He claims to have played a major part in the registration of some fifty thousand Christian conservative voters. In 2000, however, he vacated the Republican Party on grounds that the Bush-Cheney ticket was too liberal.
In the 2004 presidential election, Baldwin was Michael Peroutka's running mate and candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Constitution Party ticket. The two ran on a platform of "God, Family, and the Republic." The Peroutka/Baldwin campaign publicly spoke out against abortion,[3] women in the military,[4] and the Iraq War.[5]
Baldwin considers Bush roughly equivalent to national Democrats. In 2006, he voted in favor of disaffiliating the Independent American Party of Nevada from the Constitution Party.[6]
Baldwin effectively endorsed U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas in the 2008 presidential election in a column on August 30, 2007, entitled "Conservative Republicans have only one choice",[7] having declared: "Let's cut to the chase: conservative Republicans have only one choice for President in 2008: Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Unlike the GOP frontrunners, Paul is the real deal." On December 19, 2007 he released a video officially endorsing Congressman Paul.[8]
Baldwin has written specifically against the candidacies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mitt Romney, and Rudolph Giuliani. Prior to the death of the Reverend Falwell in 2007, Baldwin had criticized his old mentor for having supported official Republican nominees in general elections regardless of the candidates' positions on issues vital to conservatives. He decried Falwell's past affiliation with George W. Bush. Jonathan Falwell, Jerry Falwell's heir as pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, meanwhile, endorsed Mike Huckabee for the GOP nomination, another candidate that Baldwin strongly repudiated. Baldwin is known as a staunch opponent of what he calls the "new world order" and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
On December 7, 2007, Baldwin issued this statement in a column:
Unfortunately, it has been the Christian Right's blind support for President Bush in particular and the Republican Party in general that has precipitated a glaring and perhaps fatal defect: the Christian Right cannot, or will not, honestly face the real danger confronting these United States. The reason for this blindness is due, in part, to political partisanship or personal aggrandizement. Regardless, the Christian Right is currently devoid of genuine sagacity. On the whole, they fail to understand the issues that are critical to our nations--and their own--survival.[9]

By any measure of conservatism, Chuck Baldwin has it in abundance. When we use the U.S. Constitution as our yardstick, there is only one clear choice for POTUS that is Chuck Baldwin and his VP Darrel Castle. Please go and read the Constitution Party platform. Measure our party’s platform against the U.S. Constitution and see if we don’t measure up as a party and our nominees as individuals.
So this November when you go to the voting booth, don’t throw your vote away on the two big box party’s. Don’t vote because you are against something, or you are picking the lesser of two evils. Vote because you stand for the Constitution of the United States, and those who want to uphold it, and bring this country back to its constitutional roots!!!!!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-1pm EST. M-F at www.constitutionalwarrior.com