The 2021 GOP primary for Governor is heating up. The main combatants, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and former NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt, have released a bunch of endorsements, exchanged barbs, released videos and statements. All things we can expect to continue.

Activists, new and old, have been taking sides.

I’ll be taking a side soon. Bob will too. Regardless of which candidate either of us chooses to support the Bob & Steve Show will post campaign press releases to the blog as we receive them – it’s only fair to fans of the show. There are certain rules to the posting of releases: (1) we will post a campaign’s release only if we can get it done in a timely manner, (2) we will not post “endorsement” press releases, unless said endorsements come from big names (i.e. if the President endorses someone that would be newsworthy) and (3) we definitely will not post “vanity” releases.

So, back to next year’s primary election.

Some of our fellow Republicans are going to feel the need to go straight to calling those they oppose “RINOs.”

I admit it, I have used the word. It was stupid! And, it is equally dumb when others utter the word RINO.

Republicans, conservative Republicans, love to hold our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln up as an example for many things.

Unfortunately, the same conservative Republicans who love using Lincoln as an example of many good things would call him a RINO today because in 1864 he ran for re-election on the National Union ticket and had as his running mate Democrat Andrew Johnson.

How dare he!

If a Republican President dumped his sitting Vice President in favor of a Democrat running mate as Lincoln did to Hannibal Hamlin you people would call that Republican a RINO – and you know you would.

For that matter, you people would have called Ronald Reagan a RINO after his speech to the California Republican Assembly in 1967.

Surely, those who love to throw the word RINO around would have had an issue with Reagan saying that our party cannot offer “a narrow sectarian party in which all must swear allegiance to prescribed commandments.”

Reagan went on to say:

The Republican Party, both in this state and nationally, is a broad party. There is room in our tent for many views; indeed, the divergence of views is one of our strengths. Let no one, however, interpret this to mean compromise of basic philosophy or that we will be all things to all people for political expediency.

Oh, the horror!

Could you imagine if one of our candidates for governor said today, “There is room in our tent for many views…”?

I can hear the cries of RINO now.

There are still people who get mad at anyone who refers to the Republican party as a big tent. I wonder how they would have felt about Reagan referring to the Republican party as a tent four times during that speech in 1967.

Reagan was a smart guy who knew we had to support the winner of the primary. He said so in that 1967 speech:

And here is the challenge to you. It is the duty and responsibility of the volunteer Republican organizations, not to further divide, but to lead the way to unity. It is not your duty, responsibility of privilege to tear down, or attempt to destroy, others in the tent. As duly chartered Republican organizations, we can all advance our particular sectarianism or brand of candidates for the party to pass on openly and freely in a primary election.

But, as volunteer organizations, we must always remain in a position that will let us effectively support the candidates chosen by the entire party in a primary. To do less is a disservice to the party and, more importantly, to the cause in which we all believe.

It was the next line in the speech when Reagan mentioned the 11th Commandment, a commandment Reagan completely forgot about in the 1976 primary against President Gerald Ford. Reagan first went after Ford for not meeting with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn even though the President “has met recently with the Strawberry Queen of West Virginia and the Maid of Cotton.” His attacks on Ford became harsher as the campaign progressed.

My point? I never hear anyone complain Reagan violated the 11th Commandment and always hear folks scream RINO when they disagree with a fellow Republican.

Rather than scream RINO, try making a reasonable, intelligent argument as to why one should support the candidate of your choice.

And, when it’s over, remember it is indeed our duty to support the candidate chosen by the entire party in the primary.