Posted on 10/12/2007 9:59:12 PM PDT by CutePuppy
Gipper’s Glass Slipper
The Reagan moment is over.
By Jonah Goldberg
Ronald Reagan is dead, and he’s not coming back.
I wish more conservatives could come to grips with this relatively simple fact. We are now in something like the fifth round of the pin-the-tail-on-the-next-Reagan game and it’s getting old. Catering to the conservative base, the GOP presidential candidates keep trying to put on the Reagan mantle the way Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters tried to cram their dogs into her glass slipper. Not gonna happen.
Reagan-mania takes many forms. Some say they want another conservative unifier. Some claim they want a man of principle. Others think the war on terror demands the same sort of resolve Reagan displayed during the Cold War.
All good answers except they rub too much Vaseline on the lens of memory. Reagan had numerous conservative critics, even in his first term. Richard Viguerie, the New Right’s direct-mail impresario, routinely denounced Reagan’s alleged betrayals of conservative principles. Conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet, one of my intellectual heroes, was bitterly disappointed by the Reagan presidency. By Reagan’s second term, critics on the right were everywhere. It’s not that conservatives stopped loving him, but few thought he walked on water at the time.
As for Reagan, the man of principle, he was surely that. But if you listen to the crowd yearning for another Reagan today, you’d never guess that he’d signed a very liberal abortion bill as governor of California (he came to regret it). You’d be shocked to learn how many times he signed on to the Democratic Congress’ hikes on gas, payroll and other taxes during the 1980s. Reagan liked cutting taxes, not raising them. All things considered, Reagan still ranks as a heroic tax-cutter, but by the standards of the ’08 GOP primary season, he would hardly count as a “Reaganite” on taxes.
Reagan also met with Soviet dictators, on the condition that they could live long enough to make it to a summit. Many conservatives worried at the time that Reagan wasn’t nearly hard-line enough on the commies.
Look, the point isn’t to denigrate the Gipper, who, studies have shown, was put on this earth to chew gum and kick butt, and he ran out of gum in the early 1960s.
The point is that politics is about moments. The Reagan moment is over. Nisbet once wrote that nostalgia is at best the rust of memory, at worst it is a disease. I would argue it’s also a bit narcissistic. The clamor for a new Reagan is loudest from those who grew up with him, politically speaking. It’s sort of like people who insist that the rock band they grew up listening to was the greatest of all time. The Rolling Stones have to be the best; they meant so much to me!
Reagan accomplished just about all conservatives could reasonably hope for given the constraints of his time. Sure, one can kibitz over this or that apparent shortcoming, but we forget why he sometimes had to settle for half a loaf. It’s a mere fact of logic that he could only accomplish what was possible to accomplish. His challenges were not our challenges today.
America was ready for Reagan in 1980. It wasn’t in 1968 or in 1976, when he also tried for the White House. And, if we could clone him today, it might not be ready for him now. Toothpaste won’t go back in the tube, eggs don’t unscramble, Larry Craig can’t take back the toe-tapping. Life goes forward.
In the 1980s, Christian conservatives were part of the leave-me-alone coalition, arguing that the federal government should stop imposing liberal secular values on their children and institutions. Now, some Christian conservatives want the government to intrude, but this time in ways that promote traditional values. Reagan signed an amnesty for illegal immigrants. Today, John McCain’s similar but tougher stance on immigration has all but disqualified him among people looking for another Reagan. Why? Because the party has learned from Reagan’s mistake in a way McCain has not. Right or wrong, good or bad, one thing is certain: Today’s climate is different than it was a quarter-century ago.
Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and the rest of the pack all want to claim the Gipper-slipper fits them best. But the trick to being the Reagan of today is to be the Reagan of today. Reagan was the needed solution to the problems of a generation ago. The Reagan of today will do the same for today. He will likely agree with the Gipper on a lot of issues, but that agreement shouldn’t stem from play-acting.
© 2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
— Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online.
Too many, who are nothing like Reagan, are trying to claim his mantle. Pretenders, thinking they found magic word to manipulate us... And at this time in our history we just might need "a Churchill" / bulldog, not "a Reagan" / cavalier (in puppy terms).
I like Hunter.
He ain’t Reagan. But he’s much better then the rest who ain’t Reagan.
Reagan was a leader because he was true to himself and knew who he was. He was also constantly underestimated by his enemies, both foreign and domestic.
The current War on Terror requires a leader of Reagan’s conviction, and Churchillian resolve.
He loved America. The rest of them are embarrassed by America.
Reagan is dead and buried.
Looking for the next Reagan is one thing.
Waiting for the next great conservative is another thing.
Neither Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney are Reagan-like conservatives.
Fred Thompson is the real deal conservative running today and the most viable candidate who can beat Rooty and Hillary.
He regretted it, yes, but it wasn't a liberal abortion bill. It was an abortion bill that was abused by California`s medical community.
I like Hunter, too.
Well thirty years from now the Dimocrats will still be saying, ‘Gee, but we want our candidate to be just like Bill Clinton’.
With Billary they may get their wish this time but don’t bet your first book royalty on it.
A very weak article. Very weak. Jonah must not remember how establishment republicans hated Reagan. He must not remember how the GOP had created and swallowed detente as a policy with the USSR. He must not remember the universal scorn Reagan received for pushing through SDI. He must not remember that Reagan was a man of vision - “we win, they lose” that was so alien the the pre-reagan GOP as to be a heretic. He must not remember that Reagan’s staunchly conservative rhetoric cut completely against the grain of a society and party adrift. HE must not remember that Reagan brought in the values voters/pro lifers to the GOP after decades of weak sisters nearly indistinguishable from democrats. He also must not remember his letter on abortion, perhaps the most eloquent defense of life ever written.
To paint Reagan as just another politician of his time, instead of the visionary to be emulated is asinine. He is correct that no one stacks up, but there is a definite reason they are trying, because in the 19 years since he retired, there has been a severe loss of focus by the GOP.
Howie Baker Jr don’t cut it.
You’re a jerk!
Duncan “1%” Hunter definitely don’t cut it.
Vote Howie Jr. Proud longtime member of the Senate ‘Centrist Coalition’. NO thanks
“Fred Thompson is the real deal conservative running today and the most viable candidate who can beat Rooty and Hillary.”
*BUMP*
He has no convictions, moral or otherwise, except winning at any Machiavellian cost.
He has changed many of positions in the last several months pandering to those(us conservatives) who he has belatedly realized he needs to have on his side to win the Primary.
Rudy is all about Rudy. A leader he is not!
Sounds like Goldberg is arguing for RINOism: Jonah Goldberg can take his Washingtonian insidersims.
Hasn’t this guy frequently been a “compromiser” RINO?
"The only comparison I like with regard to Ronald Reagan — which nobody can live up to — is that he was so believable. He was such a good communicator because he believed so intensely in his principles and he stuck with them. The camera doesn't lie," Thompson said.
"When you do that, people see that. To the extent that one could compare us in that respect, I'd be honored," he continued. "Other than that, there won't be another Ronald Reagan in my lifetime."
Reagan was Reagan and he was what the country needed at the time. I feel like we need an Eisenhower/Reagan hybrid at this time and that’s Hunter.
Hunter isn’t Reagan but Hunter is who Reagan trusted many times to advance his policies. I am less concerned about who is most like Reagan than I am with the electorate not figuring out the “Emperors of the Top Tier” have no clothes before they nominate one of them and send them against Hillary.
Jonah Goldberg is Rudy Pimp!
I have also started to note a pattern that seems to exist. The supporters of Rudy routinely practice the same Dishonesty that seems to be inherent to Rudy.
Jonah committed two in his little missive:
1. His characterization of Reagan’s Abortion Bill being liberal (for the life of the Mother)(for disclosure sake, I think Reagan was wrong on this).
2. His implied characterization of Fred wanting to wrap himself in the cloak of Reagan, which you have pointed out is incorrect.
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