I had a little devious fun with a right leaning friend today who is a Reagan worshiper of sorts. He was complaining about illegal immigrants, so I asked if he knew which US President first granted amnesty to illegals. He said he didn’t know, but it that it had to have been a Democrat because “no conservative President would ever allow such a thing!” Should have seen the look on his face when I said it was Reagan. “Bullshit!” “You’re just messing with me!”  “Nope”, I said. “Reagan signed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 into law which granted amnesty to millions of illegals.” He looked as though he might need to be resuscitated.

But I hear this a lot from Republican friends. “oh, if only Reagan was around”……

What they seem to fail to apprehend is that Reagan was first and foremost a pragmatist. And thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Tea Party, the GOP doesn’t “do” pragmatism anymore.