The Reagan Revolution Revisited
To listen to Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity tell it, supporting John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, would be equivalent to abandoning the G.O.P. and tuning in Air America Radio, the liberal mouthpiece.
Coulter, the leggy conservative columnist, went on Fox News not so long ago to say that she would support Hillary Clinton over McCain, because Hillary acts more conservative than he does.
Others are questioning the Arizona senator's credentials and asking whether he’s a true-blue conservative, citing his votes against George Bush’s tax cuts and aligning with the ``Gang of 14’’ in 2005, when he joined seven other Democrats in a judicial appointment compromise.
And lately, political websites has been flooded with commentaries arguing McCain falls well short of living up to the conservatism of Ronald Reagan, and steering America back to the glory days of the Reagan Revolution.
This is when I find myself scratching my head, wondering if there’s some revisionism going on about the ``Great Communicator''. Was Reagan really that great of a president?
I’m not a presidential historian and don’t play one on the History Channel, but what I remember about the Reagan years is that in 1981 the Department of Agriculture considered ketchup to be a vegetable; thankfully, it caused such a stir, it was never realized; Social Security benefits were cut off for 500,000 people, it took the federal courts to restore 200,000 of those benefits. I also remember the recession of 1982, when the White House reluctantly agreed to $98.6 billion in taxes, but back then they didn’t call them taxes, they were referred to as``revenue enhancers’’.
And while Reagan is correctly credited with presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in the post-war era, I also remember, ``Black Monday’’ (October 19, 1987), when the stock market plunged 508 points, the largest single fall since 1929, in both absolute and percentage terms.
I remember the budget deficit being $74 billion in 1980; by 1988 it had ballooned to $146 billion; while adding a staggering $1.5 trillion to the total federal debt.
One of the last memories I have of the Reagan Revolution was the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986-87, when the White House admitted they had sold arms to Iran in exchange for hostages, while some of the profits were funneled to guerrillas in Nicaragua
It was hard not to take a liking to Reagan; he had such a teddy bear quality, joking with the press and refusing to take himself so seriously, an endearing quality compared with LBJ and Nixon’s lust for power, but this was also a president who couldn’t get through a press conference without a number of gaffe’s and miscues, frequently getting his facts twisted, while needing 3-by-5 index cards from staff members to conduct cabinet meetings.
But I guess everyone looks at the past through a different lens.
Alan Brinkley, history professor at Columbia University, thought Reagan’s great accomplishment was to demonstrate that ``conservative ideology could be mobilized effectively to elect conservative candidates. Reagan, once in office, Brinkley wrote, was unable to achieve much of what conservatives wanted, and to a large degree didn’t even try’’
Not all are dismissing McCain’s ideas as being in riot with conservative principles, the American Conservative Union, for example, gives him an 82.3 ranking ; the Washington Post's David Broder reports former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is throwing his support behind McCain, as are former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Gary Bauer, American Values President, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee
Thankfully, Coulter and Rush doesn’t speak for all Republicans.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
Coulter, the leggy conservative columnist, went on Fox News not so long ago to say that she would support Hillary Clinton over McCain, because Hillary acts more conservative than he does.
Others are questioning the Arizona senator's credentials and asking whether he’s a true-blue conservative, citing his votes against George Bush’s tax cuts and aligning with the ``Gang of 14’’ in 2005, when he joined seven other Democrats in a judicial appointment compromise.
And lately, political websites has been flooded with commentaries arguing McCain falls well short of living up to the conservatism of Ronald Reagan, and steering America back to the glory days of the Reagan Revolution.
This is when I find myself scratching my head, wondering if there’s some revisionism going on about the ``Great Communicator''. Was Reagan really that great of a president?
I’m not a presidential historian and don’t play one on the History Channel, but what I remember about the Reagan years is that in 1981 the Department of Agriculture considered ketchup to be a vegetable; thankfully, it caused such a stir, it was never realized; Social Security benefits were cut off for 500,000 people, it took the federal courts to restore 200,000 of those benefits. I also remember the recession of 1982, when the White House reluctantly agreed to $98.6 billion in taxes, but back then they didn’t call them taxes, they were referred to as``revenue enhancers’’.
And while Reagan is correctly credited with presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in the post-war era, I also remember, ``Black Monday’’ (October 19, 1987), when the stock market plunged 508 points, the largest single fall since 1929, in both absolute and percentage terms.
I remember the budget deficit being $74 billion in 1980; by 1988 it had ballooned to $146 billion; while adding a staggering $1.5 trillion to the total federal debt.
One of the last memories I have of the Reagan Revolution was the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986-87, when the White House admitted they had sold arms to Iran in exchange for hostages, while some of the profits were funneled to guerrillas in Nicaragua
It was hard not to take a liking to Reagan; he had such a teddy bear quality, joking with the press and refusing to take himself so seriously, an endearing quality compared with LBJ and Nixon’s lust for power, but this was also a president who couldn’t get through a press conference without a number of gaffe’s and miscues, frequently getting his facts twisted, while needing 3-by-5 index cards from staff members to conduct cabinet meetings.
But I guess everyone looks at the past through a different lens.
Alan Brinkley, history professor at Columbia University, thought Reagan’s great accomplishment was to demonstrate that ``conservative ideology could be mobilized effectively to elect conservative candidates. Reagan, once in office, Brinkley wrote, was unable to achieve much of what conservatives wanted, and to a large degree didn’t even try’’
Not all are dismissing McCain’s ideas as being in riot with conservative principles, the American Conservative Union, for example, gives him an 82.3 ranking ; the Washington Post's David Broder reports former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is throwing his support behind McCain, as are former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Gary Bauer, American Values President, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee
Thankfully, Coulter and Rush doesn’t speak for all Republicans.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
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