A new poll by the National Geographic Channel shows that if an election were held today between Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan as he was in the ’80s, Reagan would win in a 16-point landslide. Reagan even won (albeit by a narrower margin) among voters who are too young to remember him, including many voters who weren’t even born until after he left office.
This poll is encouraging news for those of us who have been perplexed as to how an utterly unqualified and unaccomplished charlatan like Barack Obama could win the presidency – twice. This poll indicates that Obama didn’t win those elections based on his ideas – He won despite those ideas based on his superficial ability to inspire and based on his having been blessed with unprincipled and uninspiring opponents. When Obama was matched against Ronald Reagan, the epitome of a principled inspirational conservative, the American people overwhelmingly chose Reagan.
The relevance of this poll is that it demonstrates that reports of the demise of the Republican Party can be proven to be exaggerated. Ronald Reagan won in 1980 in a time when liberalism was considered the mainstream of politics in both parties. A truly conservative Republican had not previously won the presidency since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Reagan bucked the prevailing winds by running as the confident and principled conservative that he had proven himself to be over decades of conservative advocacy, and he used his campaign to explain in plain language reflecting basic common sense why conservative ideas are best for the country. When his implementation of those policies in his first term brought the country to a level of stability and prosperity not seen since the early 1960s, he was rewarded with a landslide reelection victory in 1984. Now, nearly 25 years since he left office, Reagan’s record and inspirational persona still carry the day, even with voters who never personally knew him as president.
In the years since Reagan left office in 1989, the Republican Party has not offered candidates who have expressed conservative values with his kind of confidence, optimism and passion. The closest the GOP came to such a nominee was George W. Bush in 2000, but even he apologized for his conservative ideas by couching them under the unnecessary and redundant qualifier “compassionate.” This new poll showing that Ronald Reagan would still win a decisive victory, even over a popular incumbent president who was reelected just a few months ago, demonstrates that if the GOP rediscovers its principled voice and direction going forward, it can once again win presidential elections.
