• Ronald Reagan – 1911-2004: Conservatism’s hero Ronald Reagan – 1911-2004: Conservatism’s hero St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 6, 2004 Ronald Reagan was the father a brand of modern American conservatism that has dominated the country for most of the years
• Ronald Reagan – 1911-2004: Conservatism’s hero
Ronald Reagan – 1911-2004: Conservatism’s hero
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 6, 2004
Ronald Reagan was the father a brand of modern American conservatism that has dominated the country for most of the years since his election to the presidency in 1980. Mr. Reagan, the 40th president, died Saturday after a decade battling Alzheimer’s.
Mr. Reagan’s brand of conservatism revolved around tax cuts, smaller government, the end of the welfare state, opposition to abortion, anti-communism and the reassertion of American power in the world.
His presidency ended double-digit inflation, built up the military and brought the nation to the end of the Cold War.
On the other hand, Mr. Reagan also presided over the Iran-Contra scandal, a retreat from Lebanon after the death of more than 200 Marines, a retrenchment in the government’s support for civil rights and the creation of record budget deficits.
On the evening of Mr. Reagan’s inauguration, fireworks exploded over Washington to celebrate the release of the American hostages in Iran, ending the crisis that had ruined Jimmy Carter’s presidency and opened the door of the White House to the former California governor.
But Mr. Reagan’s presidency hardly had begun before he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in the capital. Mr. Reagan, pale but determined, made a memorable appearance before a joint session of Congress as he took back the reins of power. In short order, he won passage of tax cuts that provided the foundation of his supply-side approach to boosting the economy.
The Hollywood-actor-turned-politician – his nicknames were “Dutch” and “the Gipper” – had an optimistic, sunny disposition and was a master on the public stage. That was reflected in his “Morning in America” re-election campaign that buried Walter Mondale in 1984.
But Mr. Reagan could be tough, as he was in breaking the air traffic controllers union. Even though that event sent an anti-labor message, Mr. Reagan was extremely popular among blue-collar “Reagan Democrats” attracted by Mr. Reagan’s social conservatism.
Early in his career, Mr. Reagan had opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a view reflected throughout his two terms. Mr. Reagan attempted to restore a tax break to discriminatory Bob Jones University and undermined the enforcement of a number of civil rights laws.
Historians long will argue about whether Mr. Reagan’s tough “tear down this wall” approach to the Soviet Union brought the end of the Cold War. His supporters argue that his deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe, his huge defense budgets and the Star Wars anti-missile plan forced the Soviet Union to go broke.
Other historians say Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was more responsible for the end of the Soviet Union than Mr. Reagan. Historians also will quarrel over how much fault should be laid at Mr. Reagan’s feet for the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the administration provided illegal funding for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
But there was no debate about how Mr. Reagan presided over the rebirth of conservatism in America. Even President George W. Bush styles himself a Reagan Republican, not a George H.W. Bush Republican. On the day Mr. Reagan died, Reagan Republicans controlled the levers of power in Washington from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to another.
