Reaganites to revitalize ‘Citizens For The Republic’

October 5, 2007

With the Republican Party struggling, and the conservative movement rudderless, a 1970s-era conservative group is about to shake the dust off and get back into the game.

Fed up with neocons, theocons and convict cons, a group of former aides to Ronald Reagan want to reanimate the Republican Party by reviving the organization that brought Reagan to power.

The revitalized Citizens For The Republic — or CFTR — has already secured $17 million in solid financial commitments, according to an official involved in raising money for the organization.

Craig Shirley, a Republican strategist and historian, has agreed to serve as chairman of the board. Others who will participate or who have agreed to raise money are Paul Laxalt, the former Nevada Senator and close Reagan friend; former Reagan attorney general Richard Allen; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and conservative activists Brent Bozell and Gary Bauer.

If the “Citizens For The Republic” name sounds familiar, it’s because the group was originally formed after the 1976 presidential election, as an outgrowth of Reagan’s unsuccessful campaign (aides used left over money and mailing lists to form the organization). An official with the revitalized CFTR told The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder that “the conditions of the party today are almost identical to what they were in 1977.” Presumably, the idea is that CFTR can help invigorate the right the way Reagan did.

I’m a little skeptical whether any of this is going to matter.

First, does the right really need another conservative group? Is there really some niche that the CFTR expects to fill? It’s not as if the movement is hurting for organizations:

* There are already plenty of groups that have been around for years (Norquist’s outfit, the Heritage Foundation, AEI, Council for National Policy, Arlington Group, Young Americans for Freedom)

* Religious right groups (Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Christian Coalition)

* And a bunch of new groups that have popped up recently to revitalize the conservative movement (Freedom’s Watch, The Vanguard, Victory Caucus, Gingrich’s new outfit, Tom DeLay’s new outfit, Dick Armey’s new outfit, Move America Forward).

Reaganites are looking at this landscape and thinking, “You know what conservatives really need? Another activist organization for the right.” How very odd.

And second, I suspect the folks behind Citizens For The Republic plan to distinguish themselves by using the Reagan name, but therein lies the rub: they don’t have a Reagan.

Fed up with neocons, theocons and convict cons…

Newt Gingrich, Brent Bozell, and Gary Bauer???

  • Not only don’t they have a Reagan, they don’t have any of the compelling (if wrongheaded) ideas that animated Reagan and to which he put his great political talents. Or rather, those ideas are still around, but they’ve been utterly discredited by the dismal results they’ve generated:

    –Tax cuts lead to horrendous inequality, unconscionable deficits and debt, and lack of money to spend on things like schools and infrastructure–so you get a collapsed bridge within sight of where the Republicans will hold their Convention next year.

    –Deregulation and “shrinking of government” gets you Blackwater’s thrill-killers and Halliburton’s obscene profits and terrible services, plus atrocious conditions at Walter Reed for our injured soldiers.

    –The elevation of cronyism and “loyalty” over expertise and competence leads to “Brownie” running FEMA and Gonzo as the attorney general.

    –Pre-emption and the fetishization of force mires you in Iraq.

    What aspect of “conservative” ideology, as the term is now considered, has yet to be discredited? The unholy alliance of Norquist and Dobson, as lived by Bush, Cheney and DeLay, has put this country in a deep, deep hole. This crowd seems to believe that they can somehow dig out of it using the same set of shovels.

  • “the conditions of the party today are almost identical to what they were in 1977.”???

    In 1977 they had (a few) sane people left running the party, they hadn’t gotten us into an endless, pointless war, and they had an unpopular Democratic president to run against.

    Yeah, that sounds like a real close match to today’s situation.

    Whatever they’re smokin’, I hope they keep smokin’ it.

  • Well, maybe the reshuffling of priorities and shifting of allegiances in the Republican party as it stands today will lead to a breaking of the main 2-party system in existence now. But aren’t liberals and progressives doing somewhat the same thing, disappointed as they are in the Democrats? I’ve received emails asking me to sign up for new parties or encouragement to vote for “marginal” candidates from existing smaller parties.

    If America survives the Bush administration, we might have a lot of parties eventually, which would lead to some interesting election results.

  • Re: anney #4

    If America survives the Bush Cabal, there are indeed going to be a lot of parties –the kind with lots of booze.

  • Dajafi hits the central point that pretty much all of what Reagan stood for has been quite thoroughly debunked. What all these splinter groups are attempting to do is to return to the “soul of the party.” In reality, there isn’t one.

    But there is repackaging of the corrupt and self-serving practices that lure all who put self before others into the party and are looking for a way to make their own deficiencies into virtues by wrapping them in a flag and declaring their faults as being downright patriotic. That’s what Republicanism is these days: labeling fear as strength through lashing out and getting into stupid wars, ripping apart the glue that holds a society together by calling neglect “ownership,” lazily claiming solutions will find themsleves through mysterious market forces rather than taking action and lying, lying, lying in vain attempts to save face and always appear perfect, among all the many other Republican warts.

    McCain just said he’d re-appoint Greenspan to the Fed even if he were dead, maybe that’s the same attitude CFTR has about Ronnie.

  • If the “Citizens For The Republic” name sounds familiar, it’s because…

    It sounds like something out of Star Wars?

    Oh, I guess that’s just me.

    I’m a little skeptical whether any of this is going to matter.

    No shit.

  • Pingback: Think Progress » New right-wing group to have $17 million budget.
  • Pingback: Some Friday afternoon blog posts | Blog and News Tidbets

  • Wow, I just googled the stuffing out of “Citizens for the Republic” and couldn’t find any contact info.

    I guess they’re stuck in the 70’s in more ways than one!

    Rats, I was looking forward to going to a meeting. How great would it be to steer the GOP back to “small government”?

    Yopu know, the kind that doesn’t care what’s happening in your bedroom, the kind that can’t search your house without a warrant, the kind that can’t listen in on your phone calls with your wife when she’s on a business trip to Mexico… yada yada yada. All that 70’s stuff we thought we had passed after the last criminal president we had.

  • Fed up with neocons, theocons and convict cons, a group of former aides to Ronald Reagan want to reanimate the Republican Party by reviving the organization that brought Reagan to power.

    I think we should lump them all together and just call them the Decipticons.

    Who knew my childhood would become so relevant?

  • Good grief, 17 million dollars for another bunch of right-wing wackos yammering about what’s wrong with Amurica? It’s a great example of all those tax cuts “goin’ to work” as rich nutcases finance another self serving group. Maybe we’ll see a little less of this nonsense if we restore some sanity to the tax code.

  • Any organization that has L. Brent Bozo IV in it is not some “adults in charge” organization. This is the saliva-spewing far right brawler who physically attacked a questioner on TV last year for questioning his motivations with his Parents Research Council. The guy is a 4th generation far right scam artist whose father was such a nutcase that no less than William F. Buckley Jr. threw L. Brent Bozo III off the National Review for being crazy. The family are prominent supporters of the “Tridentine Mass” movement of Catholics who deny everything associated with “Vatican II.”

    And of course there is Gary Bauer, who needs no introduction to what kind of far right theocratic troll he is.

    Both these guys are theocrats who want to use the power of government to advance their religious views. How does their presence fit with the res of the CFTR crowd?

    Call on me, teacher! Call on me!! I know! I know!!

    Ronald Reagan was the first right wing Republican to give a snowbog to the Religious Right and thus get access to their money and their foot soldiers – all of whom he proceeded to ignore as of 12:01 p.m. January 21, 1981.

    How anyone can think that a resurgence of Ray-Gun-ism is a positive step is beyond me. I met the guy once (yes, he certainly was personable, as if that means a damn thing) when he was governor of California and I was a political operative, and my great regret is I didn’t have a gun with me. Mine wouldn’t have misfired. (Plus all he had for security in those days was two California Highway Patrol officers)

  • One other thing-L. Brent Bozell IV is William F. Buckley’s nephew. Bozell’s mother is Buckley’s sister.

  • Tom, @15
    I *liked* “snowbog”. But then, I learnt Brit-Eng, before Am-Eng, so “bog” evokes all the right connotations 🙂

  • Pingback: Make Them Accountable / Here we go again.

    • Comments are closed.