Ronald Reagan would have turned 100 this weekend, and the Right is stumbling over its lathered tongues to make it the day of his final beatification. Sarah Palin spent her lucrative time bemoaning the "fact" that "we" as a nation no longer share Saint Gipper's values; don't even think about checking out the National Review's coverage unless you're willing to suspend your sense of reason in favor of a ludicrous atavism.
Fact is, among those who do not share Ronald Reagan's values are Sarah Palin and anyone else who thinks that raising taxes (on the middle class, no less), expanding government, increasing federal debt, and enshrining abortion rights into law are anathema to the Republican identity. Ronald Reagan did all of those things. By comparison, President Obama looks almost reactionary: sure, he's expanded the debt and supports abortion, but the guy has cut taxes for everyone twice.
The curious thing about the Republican mythologization of Reagan is the timing. Now, in an era when the party is veering ever further into extremism and ideological purity, it is raising a demonstrated moderate pragmatist as its holy man. I can see only two explanations. The first and most obvious is that there is no living Republican of broad influence and respect who can credibly claim to be a conservative as the term is currently bastardized by the party. George H. W. Bush raised taxes; George W. Bush cut taxes but massively increased debt and the government payroll; both launched wars that were not obviously in the national interest. (Until some liberals became neo-conservatives, opposition to such interventionist follies were a conservative talking point against ignorant liberal meddlers.) The two Bushes, and McCain, and McConnell, and Palin, and Romney: name a big-stick Republican and you'll in fact find a RINO. So a fabricated conservative totem pole must be raised, and Reagan, who has no choice in the matter, is its headpiece.
The other explanation is demographic. I have just enough respect for the intelligence of the right-wing punditocracy to believe they're aware of this — and scared by it. According to the latest fine-grained data from the Census Bureau...
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/reagan-at-100?src=rss
cq politics politics and religion political commercials politic politic data cold war political cartoons
No comments:
Post a Comment