Oh No. Another “Reagan Republican”

Posted by Anthony Gregory on June 21, 2011

Jon Huntsman announced his presidential bid in front of the Statue of Liberty, evoking images of Reagan’s announcement of his own run over three decades ago standing at the same spot. Huntsman, a former Reagan official, reminded his audience that Reagan had “assured us we could ‘make America great again,’ and under his leadership we did.”

I see why Republicans would want the bad taste of George “No Child Left Behind” Bush and his father, George “Read My Lips” Bush, out of the public memory, but it is a wonder to me that conservatives somehow think Reagan was some ideal model for anything, and in particular “conservatism” as they often claim it to be.

Reagan is, after all, the president who:

• About doubled the size of the federal government
• Increased Social Security taxes and the overall tax bite from the American economy
• Promised to abolish the Selective Service, the Department of Education, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, and did nothing of the sort
• Gave support to Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran (whose brutality was cited in 2003 as a reason to oust Saddam), while also illegally giving weapons to Iranian extremists
• Ramped up the unconstitutional drug war
• Gave financial and diplomatic support to Pol Pot — yes, you read that right
• Embraced protectionism

Now, he did have some virtues from a radical libertarian standpoint. He continued Carter’s deregulation of several industries. He pulled out of Lebanon when the Marine barracks were bombed. And he granted illegal immigrants amnesty. But much of this doesn’t seem to square with the modern conception of what it means to be a “conservative.” Neither does one of his most radical acts as governor: Reagan signed the most liberal abortion law in the country. Yet do any prolifers condemn Reagan? It seems they are under some inexplicable spell or delusion.

Reagan’s gubernatorial reign, incidentally, puts the lie to the notion that his big-government policies can all be attributed to defense spending. California was not involved in an arms race. And yet, as governor, this great conservative:

• Signed the Mulford Act, banning the carrying of firearms in general terms, setting the stage for California’s modern atmosphere of being anti-gun
• Increased taxes more than any previous governor, including his $1 billion hike in his first year—the largest tax increase in CA history
• Immensely expanded the welfare bureaucracy and added over 30,000 employees to the state government payroll
• Created 73 new state government councils and commissions, including the horrible California Energy Commission
• Oversaw a 122% increase in the state budget

This is the reality of the Reagan legacy. Even as a governor, with no military enemy as an excuse, he acted even worse than the Democratic governors before and after him. And why not? Reagan was a unionist, a Hollywood New Deal Democrat who took on the role of touting free enterprise because he was hired by General Electric to do so. He was a performer who acted his way into the White House, and to this day the Republicans all jump over themselves to claim his mantle, all competing to be described as the most Reaganesque. The worst thing about all this is when Reagan took power, the anti-government sentiment of the 1970s was largely tamed, as many Americans were lulled into a false sense of liberty even as government grew faster than it had under Carter.

Some Republicans of the past might be worth admiring. Barry Goldwater was far more dedicated to the Constitution than any nominee of his party since. Senator Robert Taft was even a better example of a small-government champion in the GOP. But if we care about about liberty and shrinking government, another Reagan Republican is in fact the last thing we need.

Categories Big government, Federal Budget, International Relations, Liberty Politics, Republican, Taxes | Tags:

  • http://www.susan28.com Susan28

    Reagan also championed the Hughes Amendment – the payload of the so-called Gun Owners’ Protection Act which henceforth from 1986 on violates our right to own machine guns and other modern weaponry produced after that – as “long overdue”, while also being correctly and infamously quoted by the left as saying “if it takes a bloodbath so be it” regarding “stemming the tide of anti-war protests on UC campuses during his reign when he formed what would become the predecessor to Operation Garden Plot to do just that. And the Drug War, and the undermining of popular will in Latin America, and, and…

    Reagan’s wish: Us defenseless, corporatists armed to the teeth in a permanent 2-tiered society. Were i religious i’d bid him rot in hell.

  • Blockice

    I also have been dumbfounded by the slavish adulation for Ronald Reagan.  I can not admire a president that increased the size of government, approved an amnesty that allowed millions of illegal immigrants to stay is this nation, did almost nothing to fight the racist policies of Affirmative Action and secretly dealt in drug and gun running to finance an illegal war in Central America.  He is no conservative hero of mine.

  • FusionTwister

    You just hate him cuz he’s white.

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paleolibertarians/ RP McCosker

    Reagan was a phony, as was Goldwater, though for some reason Gregory gives the latter a pass. (Barry Goldwater Jr. is a Ron Paul supporter, but his dad sure wouldn’t have been.)

    And for some reason we’re supposed to admire Reagan because he gave amnesty to illegal aliens, lying, as usual for Reagan, that thereafter immigration laws would be enforced.

    Despite his rhetoric, Reagan slyly expanded the federal regime, both domestically and in terms of imperial reach. Anyone who’d actually followed his practices as governor of California and his other antics could have foreseen that.

    Much unlike Ron Paul, who during his long Congressional tenure has relentlessly stood on principle, no matter how much it cost him in terms of the Republican political establishment.

  • Dalylue

    You may be the exception but most people learn by making mistakes.  I believe that Regan did and he was able to do some of the greatest tasks during his White House term.

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