Lyn Nofziger

By Richard A. Viguerie, CHQ Chairman
Many have rightly eulogized Senator Paul Laxalt as one of Ronald Reagan’s closest political confidants, but that does not properly credit Paul Laxalt’s essential contribution to the modern conservative movement.

Jeff Bell’s two most notable books, The Case for Polarized Politics and Populism and Elitism are must-read resources for anyone wishing to understand the conservative – populist politics that gave rise to the election of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. There could be no better memorial to Jeff Bell than to read his books and build upon his ideas.

Those Republicans who are looking for a shift to the Right at the new Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post should recall that even though newly-named publisher Fred Ryan served in Ronald Reagan's White House, he is a cofounder of POLITICO, the harsh and persistent critic of the Tea Party movement and its Reagan-inspired limited government constitutional conservative agenda.

As conservative Fred Gruber proved by winning election as Virginia’s 7th District Republican Chairman, if you want to govern America according to conservative principles, first take back your local Republican Party from the progressive establishment Republicans, like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who have hijacked the Party and turned it into a vehicle to preserve their own personal power.

Ronald Reagan built his coalition by taking all the discontents within the Republican Party and molding them into a coherent conservative ideology and a winning coalition that defeated the Republican establishment in the primaries. After just five short years the grassroots limited government constitutional conservatives of the Tea Party movement are well on their way to doing the same thing.

Until the Republican Party at the national level rediscovers its principles, or better yet limited government constitutional conservatives takeover, nationally the Republican Party will remain what Rush Limbaugh so insightfully pointed out it has become – a second Party of pushback against conservatives – and that’s a dead brand if there ever was one.