ORIGINALLY POSTED 2/2/08
For over 230 years now, the United States has travelled the long highway to exceptionalism internationally and abundant prosperity and freedom at home. Aside from an occasional speed bump, America has stood tall as the single most important force for progress in the world. Since 1980 American Conservatives have paved onward, expanding the lanes as we've gone and allowing an ever-growing number of citizens at home and previously-enslaved people throughout the world to join us on the road to an even greater future. Today, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the end of that pavement lies just ahead in plain sight. The battle wages before us as we make the choices that will decide whether we do the hard work needed to extend the highway of progress straight ahead into a more prosperous, freer future, or whether we will reverse course and make a sharp left turn onto the old, dusty road leading to regression, government repression and economic recession.
Unfortunately, those that would move us toward that leftward path have confiscated the language of politics. We see two neo-Marxists running for the Democrat Party nomination using a repackaged version of the ideas that led to the Stalinist/Leninist former Soviet Union. They call their ideas “progressive” (or secular-progressive when they’re feeling slightly less dishonest). I call them “dangerous.”
We see populists on both sides preaching the same “us versus them” doctrine that has created repressive tyrants and economic calamity every time it’s been carried to its logical end. We see free market capitalism under attack daily by those who claim to be “forward-thinking” but whose policies would undermine the very system that has made America a beacon of hope and progress.
We see junk-scientists lying that this very progress is killing our planet, and that the only way to turn it around is to follow the same gameplan the socialists have been peddling for 50 years. We see a presidential candidate attempting to remake the Republican Party into some sort of squishy Democrat-Lite Party, audaciously trying to redefine American Conservatism to make it include himself, as its leader.
It is time for American Conservatives to take back what rightfully belongs to us, beginning with that language.
In their insightful book, “The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America,” British authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge explain what a rare breed American Conservatives are. This stems from our unique national history. Most people in the world who call themselves conservatives preach a stodgy, anti-progress ideology. Not so with American Conservatives.
As the first nation founded under the belief that government receives its power from “we the people,” American Conservatives hope to conserve the still-revolutionary ideas of our founders, including our God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We hold fast to freedom from government oppression, cherish our strong private property rights, favor free markets, low taxation and limited federal government. Under the language used at the time of our founding, most Conservative Americans are actually classic liberals. The socialist/progressives stole that word from us long ago. Barack Obama, who opposes almost all the items I mentioned above, was just named the “Most Liberal Senator” of 2007.
As a 33-year old journalism student, I have been surprised to learn that most of my classmates have no idea why Ronald Reagan stands alone as the most revered and beloved president in recent history. If they know little about Ronald the Great, they know even less about Jimmy Carter, and therein lies my mission. Never in American history were the differences between two successive presidents more profound, and the results of their policies more easily recognized than the time period between 1977 and 1988.
Carter’s lone term illustrated the disastrous effects of combining a liberal president with a liberal congress. He was such a disaster that even the predominately liberal media of the time couldn’t comprehend the havoc he wreaked on this country. Only the creation of the misery index allowed them to accurately report the depths of despair he led us into, and even that index didn’t take into account America’s declining world influence and the expansion of Soviet allies throughout the world.
Ronald Reagan’s policies, and yes his optimism, turned this nation around. Since his dramatic tax cuts took full effect, America has realized nearly uninterrupted prosperity. Only his non-believing VP, George HW Bush (who referred to Reagan’s tax cutting plan as “voodoo economics”, failed to extend the prosperity. The supposedly disastrous economy of today actually ranks as one of the “least miserable” years in the last half-century. We’ve rarely had it this good.
But now we stand poised to throw it all away. While the Republicans have fought hard to out-Reagan one another rhetorically, the fact is that none are anywhere near the committed conservative ideologue that Reagan was. At least four of the remaining five candidates for the presidency are closer ideologically to Carter than they are to Reagan. Only Mitt Romney offers hope in that at least he can talk the talk without making me double-over laughing, but even he has never truly walked the walk. The others are just varying shades of gray, and if the pundits are correct John McCain will wrap up the Republican nomination this Tuesday.
This blog will follow the political scene forward, attempting to encourage debate and to influence where we go from here by evaluating events through the speeches, actions and ideas of Ronald Reagan. One of the tremendous things about Reagan is that his speeches before becoming president accurately reflect the way he tried to lead the country while in office. This is rare indeed. I will apply those ideas to the world we face today.
At the same time, we will help educate the newest generation about the greatness of American Conservative ideals. The nation and the world progress every time they are implemented. I firmly believe that today’s liberalism stands no chance if the battle is waged in full view of an informed public. Conservatives win on ideas and logic every time. To that end, I encourage debate through comments from people who have believed those who would revise the history of Reagan’s presidency. I will attempt to respond to all reasonable discussion that my posts might generate.
In all my posts I will look to the words and actions of my hero, doing my best to answer one question:
“What would Reagan do?”
My next planned post will look at Reagan’s coming out speech, “A Time For Choosing,” and apply it to the choices we face this election year and beyond.
Until then, here are some examples of Reagan’s classic humor…
