Picking Cotton?

Junior senator not ready for presidential run

The other night, late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert sat down with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a staunchly conservative candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

Colbert, who spent a decade playing a caricature of an arch-conservative television commentator on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” put his considerable political knowledge to use.

The focus? The legacy of Ronald Reagan, the kind of president every Republican — and probably some Democrats — would like to be. Today’s Tea Party-infected Republican Party, if it could, would canonize the late president who is often considered the standard-bearer of conservatism.

“Reagan raised taxes,” Colbert told Cruz. “Reagan actually had an amnesty program for illegal immigrants. Neither of those things would allow Reagan to be nominated today. So what level can you truly emulate Ronald Reagan?”

Cruz rejected notions of raising taxes and amnesty, clinging instead to Reagan’s largest tax cut in history. Colbert wasn’t buying.

“But when conditions changed in the country, he reversed his world’s largest tax cut and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations, so it’s a matter of compromising. Will you be willing to compromise with the other side?”

Cruz didn’t have much of an answer, but his was the latest illustration of how those in the GOP grasp hard for any linkage to The Great Communicator, the Teflon president. He was the last really great success story for GOP presidents.

Have you heard about U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton’s run for the presidency? Well, that’s OK, because he’s not among the scads of Republicans hoping to nab the 2016 GOP crown and the White House. But state Rep. Charlie Collins of Fayetteville wants to change that.

Collins recently established callingcaptaincotton.com, a website focused on drafting the junior U.S. senator and ex-Army captain from Dardenelle to run for the presidency. That’s perhaps not shocking, as Cotton undoubtedly has visions of higher office, but even he hasn’t been so bold as to suggest he’s the best man for the Oval Office after a year in the Senate and a two-year stint in the House of Representatives.

Collins is that bold. ““I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1985. President Ronald Reagan handed me my commission. In that moment, 31 years ago, I felt tremendous honor and love for country. When I watch Tom Cotton, those feelings come rushing back. He’s the leader our country needs to make Americans believe again.”

In an interview, Collins referred to Cotton as “the kind of Reaganesque leader we need.” Cue Stephen Colbert.

Comparisons to Reagan these days are just wishful thinking, a longing for the days when a GOP president inspired the country and led with pragmatism.

Such pragmatism is what appears to be missing in this younger crop of Reagan wannabes. President Reagan in the 1960s advised following an Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Does that sound like any GOP members today?

Today’s conservatism too often does not reflect the Reagan approach. Indeed, Cotton at times appears to view compromise as a betrayal of convictions rather than a vital part of the American experience in government. Reagan was a great negotiator because, to use a football analogy, he looked for ways to move the ball down the field. Today’s conservatives more often appear ready to take the ball and go home.

Will Cotton be the right candidate for president one day? Perhaps, with some seasoning and after demonstrating some ability to achieve results in Washington. But Collins’ move is too soon.

Just consider this: How did things turn out the last time voters elected a first-term U.S. senator to the highest office in the land? Almost every conservative and a fair number of progressives will tell you that hasn’t worked out so well.