Never knew for sure where the expression
came from that my grandmother voiced to my brother and me from time to
time, “You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas,” but whether or
not it was original with her, that probably wasn’t vital to her concern;
only the intent to make a point for her grandsons.
I’d like to pass it along to Ted Cruz. If the Senator (I’m from
Texas) thought he could, as Ronald Reagan mistakenly thought as well,
come into the Republican party’s
party and with a slight finger
snap or pursed lips “psst” reveal himself as a dog whisperer and clean
the political fleas from the ghastly flotsam of party-political neocons
and pseudo-intellectual hounds from hell, he either isn’t as smart as I
think he is or he fell for the same madness that the aforementioned
Reagan did.
Men like Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christi, Mike
Huckabee, Lindsey Graham and the prize of flea carriers Haley Barbour (I
grew up in Mississippi) are as principled as their Democrat
counterparts with their Lady MacHillary. Please note that three of the
preceding names are Southerners. As well it should be remembered that
Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are Southerners. Bushes 41
and 43 are such only in the Carpetbagger sense.
It has been said (naturally by the
media) as least an
infinite number of times that Ted Cruz hasn’t a friend in the Senate—lo
not a friend in Washington! That alone is why I will vote (my privilege,
not my right— ironically a
republican principle) for him again
given the chance. But, as Reagan learned, though never apparently
understood, Republicans are not conservatives of tradition. They are
only conservatives of their political house. Fact is, the present
nominee, Donald Trump, the reincarnate P.T. Barnum, will, if elected
(unlikely) issue “executive orders” with greater ferocity than any of
his predecessors.
Reagan left the Democrat party and later saw the light though the illumination of Barry Goldwater’s
Conscience of a Conservative. When
the party apparatchiks of the day, Bill Stanton, George Romney, Nelson
Rockefeller, et al ad nauseam submarined and sabotaged Goldwater, Reagan
had to take the long view (as all politicians do) and lean toward the
Nixon center. Volia`,
once Gerald ford stumbled through the two and a half years of stupidity
and Carter followed with (if it were possible) four years of even more
stupidity Reagan was ready to bring the true meaning of
Jefferson-Calhoun conservatism to Washington because his backers could
spell Goldwater. Reagan wasn’t a Southerner, but so what? Carter was,
but he was just another political rascal.
In 1981 Ronald Reagan became the 40
th president. His
Nixonian colors were not long in being hoisted when he gave in and
withdrew a Southerner’s, M.E. Bradford, name as chairman for the
National Endowment for the Humanities (for an excellent read see
McClanahan’s and Wilson’s book
Forgotten Conservatives in American History)
This was the Ronald Reagan who was supposed to be the reason for the
past twenty years that Southern Democrats needed to convert to
Republicans.
Ronald Reagan had learned states’ rights at the knee of
Goldwater. In his heart we assumed, like everyone, that Reagan knew
Goldwater was right. Principles such as nullification and federalism
could be discussed without the authors being called hate mongers. What
many Southerners failed to realize was that Reagan wasn’t swept into the
White House with a cadre of conservatives in his wake, but in fact was
swept in by the brooms of the Neo-conservatives. But then he had made
his bed when he left Goldwater.
I don’t know if the South will ever get its own limited, local and
independent government(s) but, personally, I’m sure that it will not
come through the Republican party. The advice of those who are so sure
that the GOP is the answer, reminds me of the thoughts of Patrick Henry,
the great Virginia patriot who refused to attend the convention to
alter the articles of confederation: “I smell a rat!”
For a smell of rats, look again at some of the names above.
