Republicans for Clark

Join "Republicans for Clark" | "It's Safe to Vote Democrat Again" | "To The Reagan Democrats: Welcome Home"

"To the Reagan Democrats: Welcome Home!"

It’s public record in this country, so I invite you to look it up: I’m a Republican. Here’s the interesting thing, though: my voter registration card will tell you only when I’ve voted – but not how I voted.

You knew that already, I’m sure, but I’m trying to make a point:
Our party labels need not oblige us to pull certain levers behind certain opaque curtains. To the contrary, we can “think Democrat,” “act Democrat” and even be Democrats…and still vote Republican. Many did so in 1980 and 1984; the media labeled them “Reagan Democrats,” and it was that chunk of the vote which shook the world.

Reagan Democrats were those who had the courage to vote their consciences over their political affiliations, and as a result, our country roused itself from the self-pity of its post-Vietnam depression. We elected a man who, with American fighter planes, brought down escaping Achille Lauro hijackers…who, through force of will, ensured the razing of a wall which had divided a nation and a globe…who shored up a faltering space exploration program – and then showed the courage and strength which steeled us to continue forward even after a heartbreaking disaster.
The world owes a debt to America, and America owes a debt to its citizens for having restored the pride necessary to allow us to look beyond our borders and create liberty for people we have never met. In 1980 and 1984, the relatively small group of voters who tipped the scales in order to allow the election of the man who would make those changes were known as “Reagan Democrats.” They left their political homes in order to take a chance on a man with a different label, and they’ve stayed out there, on the front lines of that political battlefield, still ready to fight the good fight.

But it’s time that we brought them back. And the man who can do that best is named Wesley Clark.

Reagan Democrats, we thank you. And we welcome you home.

 

-- Josh Margulies

(Josh Margulies, an attorney and Republican activist living in New York, is the head of "Republicans for Clark.")  
 

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