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Thursday, July 02, 2009
A Gipper for All Seasons
Ramesh Ponnuru on the silliest debate in the GOP:
Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana says that Republicans must be the party of hope, not the party of memory. Reagan managed to lead both parties simultaneously. George Will, correcting a widespread misunderstanding at the time Reagan took office, said that he did not wish to take the country back to the past: He wanted to restore the past’s way of facing the future. Conservatism must constantly adapt. Burke knew it. So did Reagan. He was simultaneously a traditionalist and a reformer. Let all conservatives be so.
The advocates of Reagan Revivalism are not, on the whole, trying to play Frankenstein. Reagan as totem is an inchoate belief. Not knowing the word exactly, it's like pointing to something in a foreign country and saying: "That's what I want." Misty eyed nostalgia does creep in. Not the real historical Reagan, who had to deal with a Democratic Congress, who raised taxes, who retreated from Lebanon and who was implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. What is remembered is the grand sweeping Reagan who made brilliant speeches, and gestures, and revitalized the American spirit and economy. The details fall back. Doing it like Ronnie doesn't mean historical reenactment, which would be disastrous, but adaptation. Mrs Thatcher - another totem, though less honoured in her own country - used to say that the facts of life were conservative. A party that recognizes this has only to point to the facts. To the creeping socialization of American health care - next stop Canada. To the actions of economicsuicide made in the name of pseudo-science. The Age of Obama offers no shortage of examples.
Posted by Richard Anderson on July 2, 2009 | Permalink
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