Son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan, slammed aides to Senator John McCain on Friday for their attempt to scapegoat Governor Sarah Palin for the historic defeat of the Republican Party this Tuesday.

“Palin is not the reason that John McCain lost,” Reagan told the conservative news and opinion outlet Newsmax. “The reason John McCain lost is because of George Bush and his lack of leadership in Washington, D.C. with his own party — his lack of leadership in reaching out to conservatives members of his own party to get their help and be able to talk with them to move this government forward.”

“This” defeat, Reagan went on to say, “goes on George Bush, not on Sarah Palin. She should not be blamed. If anything, she helped the McCain candidacy by, in fact, bringing the base together to support someone on that ticket. I’m mad that they did not allow Sarah Palin to be Sarah Palin maybe as much as she should have.”

He went on to say that he, like many others, had expected president-elect Barack Obama to win the election because of the unpopularity of President George W. Bush.

Michael Reagan also said what many other conservative commentators said in recent days: that he was proud and happy to see an African American finally becoming America’s president. Yet, Reagan made clear, he would not be soft on Obama for he, Reagan, disagreed strongly with the plans the president-elect talked about during his campaign.

“I hope during the whole campaign, all the things he promised to do I hope was a lie. I’d hate to actually see him put these things into place… and I’ll fight tooth and nail to stop him from putting these things in place,” Reagan said.

“But, do I think it’s good for America that a black man was elected president of the United States? Absolutely. I just disagree with his policies.”

He continued to explain that, according to him, Tuesday’s victory was not caused by conservatism but rather by a lack of it during Bush’s eight years in power.: “If Barack Obama is allowed to institute all the things he talked about, we are in to socialism,” Reagan said. “But let’s be honest, the Republicans under George Bush have been ‘socialism lite.’ If you really look at what’s been going on in Washington — a $700 billion dollar bailout, nationalizing of this, nationalizing of that — [you find] we have gotten away from where Ronald Reagan was. We have gotten away from the roots of the Republican Party. We [the Republican Party] have moved toward socialism. Maybe that’s why we recognize it in Barack Obama.”

Reagan and conservatives who agree with him have a good point: Bush did not behave like a conservative. However, they are making a mistake by thinking that the platform Republicans ran on in 1980 and 1994 will lead to the same amount of success. American society seems to have changed in so far that Americans want the U.S. government to come up with solutions for the country’s main problems. Taxes are much lower now than they were when Reagan came to power. The health care problem has become worse, not better. Education continues to plague students and their parents as it did in 2000.

For these problems, Americans demand solutions. Cutting taxes, bringing back the government, all those wonderful ideas, will be ignored as long as conservatives do not explain and show how these principles result in a better America. How putting these principles into action will result in lower health care costs, and more people being insured. And if they do not, conservatives would be wise to accept changes in this regard, with a bigger role for the government, albeit in a wise manner that does not do unnecessary damage.