Ronald Reagan would have a "tough time" finding a place in today's GOP, according to Rep. Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who was pummelled in a June primary by a conservative challenger. The late former president was an "optimist" who made others "believe in America" as he did, Inglis told The Hill. But today's "snarling" Tea Partiers and other conservative activists are trying to sway voters and control party leaders with the politics of fear and division. Would Reagan, as Inglis suggests, lack the cynical ferocity to survive in the current GOP landscape? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about Reagan and the Tea Party)
Reagan would be out of his element: The Tea Party has pushed the GOP so far to the right that Reagan would find it inhospitable, says Ron Chusid at Liberal Values. His tax increases, in particular, would have been rejected by the Tea Partiers. But he's not the only Republican icon who would be out-of-sync with today's conservatives — "Barry Goldwater, often called an early leader of the conservative movement, was a strong opponent of the religious right and social conservatism."
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