How Reagan ruined conservatism

[Joanne98]

Battling my way through Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, last weekend, I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms Palin’s book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favourite to win the Republican party nomination in 2012?

And then I realised – the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as “Reaganism” are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values. Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government’s books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas – and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d640855c-256a-11df-9cdb-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

[indepat]

1. This ubiquitous rot seems to have rotted the brain in its entirety

:P

[wolfgangmo]

2. Reagan was a criminal asshole from day one.

Did you know that he used to report to the house committee on unamerican activities and worked with them as a spy to identify actors, writers, directors etc who were "subversive?" He did this as the head of the screen actors guild.

The man was a criminal and, IMHO, a traitor.

And don't get me started on his "economic" policies. http://greendreams.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/hero-or-traitor-the-reagan-legacy/

If there is any eternal justice then Reagan and Milton Friedman are sharing the same spit while being roasted in hell.

[unblock]

3. i think reagan introduced big-time republican hypocrisy

or at least he made it something to be proud of.

prior to him, conservatives were still assholes, but you knew where they stood and they were consistent in their thinking. you certainly couldn't call goldwater a hypocrite (well i'll allow that ALL politicians are hypocrites to some extent, but he's very low on the spectrum). ford, nixon, etc., for all their rotten things, pretty much did things you'd expect an old-fashioned conservative to do. nixon did have a few odd things like the price controls, but it was a time of war and there was precedent for that.

reagan introduced racking up a surplus while complaining about deficits, railing against taxes while signing in the biggest tax increase in history, railing against iranian extremists while arming them, talking about law and order while circumventing the constitution, etc.

in short, he MADE the modern republican brand and the party that followed in his footsteps saw that they could get away with ANYTHING if only they had the right pitch and the right pitchman.

[Enthusiast]

7. You sure are right about

Reagan and the start of big-time GOP hypocrisy. They have thrown hypocrisy into warp drive since the 2008 election.

[tom_paine]

4. Reagan's "presidency" was actually part of the First Bush Imperium 1981-1992

so this makes perfect sense.

Reagan was an actor who was likely already suffering from low-grade Alzheimers when the Bush Crime Family propped him up in front.

[Vidar]

5. K&R.

[Enthusiast]

6. I hope they suffer the consequences

clear to extinction.

Today we wouldn't even recognize what used to be "conservatism". Today's voices of conservatism(Limbaugh)talk as if conservatism has been forever unchanging and all great historical figures were conservatives while all historically evil figures were somehow "liberals".