Norquist upset with Jeb Bush for saying Reagan too moderate for today's GOP

Ronald Reagan was elected president over thirty years ago.  Anyone trying to fix America's problems of 2012 with the solutions of 1981 is insane (it's a bit like going to your doctor and him telling you you don't need to get a physical, he can just look at your blood tests from 1981).

But insanity rules the GOP.  They were never one for substance.  Much better to protect the flag itself (from burning, for example) than what the flag stands for.  Same goes for the Constitution.  That Second Amendment is all fine and dandy, but the rest of the Constitution (except maybe the "takings" clause") was merely a suggestion.

It's the same approach the GOP takes to issues today.  Whatever ails us, the solution is always tax cuts and increased defense spending (with a little anti-gay anti-abortion saber-rattling thrown in for good effect).  The Republicans just don't seem to have any actual answers to anything.  And at some point, "let the market do its magic" doesn't really cut it when the market almost sent us into another Great Depression.

Government can and does do good.  Guaranteeing student loans and mortgages and bank accounts come to mind.  Roads.  Medicare and Medicaid.  The FAA ensuring planes don't collide.  Social Security (costly but necessary).  And World World II wasn't so bad either.  Obviously government does a lot more worthwhile things, but you'd never hear that from a Republican.  If it doesn't involve invading a foreign country, the Republicans prefer to bash federal employees and government, and in the case of Mitt Romney, even diss cops and firemen and teachers.

So Jeb Bush is right.  Ronald Reagan is too moderate for today's GOP.  But the larger message from Bush, whether intended or not, is that, just like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Ronald Reagan is dead.  The Republicans need to deal with his death and get over it (especially now that they have a nominee who doesn't even like Reagan).

Reagan's recipes for what ail us are stale and out of date.  The Republican party needs to stop mourning a guy who hasn't been in power for nearly 25 years, and start looking to their and the country's future.