Reagan Worship Good For Progressives?
Posted by
Kevin
Ezra Klein highlights how the mythical Reagan of the conservative base voters’ minds is different from the real Reagan:
One of the more impressive bits of historical revisionism has been the successful effort to rewrite Reagan as an unshakeable ideologue rather than a charismatic pragmatist. In order to live up to Reagan’s ideal, contemporary Republicans have to be far more conservative than Reagan ever was, or ever thought of being. This is a guy who raised taxes six years in a row, sat down with the Soviet Union with no preconditions, passed a massive amnesty bill, wildly increased the size of the federal government, exploded the deficit, saved Social Security by instituting a large payroll tax, retreated from Beirut after a bombing, and expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit.
He also points out that Democrats don;t really have the equivalent:
I was trying to think who the Reagan analogue is for liberals, and couldn’t come up with much.
… So liberals have no real ghost of purity past.
I wonder if this does not work in Progressives favor. the country is no where near as conservative as the Reagan myth makes Reagan out to be. I wonder if the necessity of paying lip service to that ultra-conservative, ideologue-above-all myth of Reagan in order to impress the base makes it harder for Republicans to appeal to moderates in the general election. When you combine that with the fact that Democrats don’t have the equivalent myth they must kow-tow too, it seems to me that the myth of Reagan, as opposed to the real Reagan record, is actually a drag on the GOP and conservatism in general.
Certainly most progressives have an idea of what principals they would wish for their candidates to uphold? Maybe they don’t have a mythic person in the past who embodies those ideals, but that doesn’t change what they want their ideal candidate to stand for does it?
Comment 1/31/2008
Matt
Absolutely, but I think having a stand in for those values, like the mythical Reagan, and being forced ot embrace the entire myth, appears different to people than just a laundry list of policies and ideas.
Comment 1/31/2008
>I was trying to think who the Reagan analogue is for
>liberals, and couldn’t come up with much.
>
>… So liberals have no real ghost of purity past.
*cough* FDR *cough*
Comment 1/31/2008
SD
FDR is a pretty mainstream figure. he’s drifted into the Washington/Lincoln/TEddy territory except on the right wing fringe.
Comment 1/31/2008
[…] Kevin of Lean Left links to a very interesting article by Ezra Klein of the American Prospect. […]
Pingback 1/31/2008
[…] • Lean Left: Reagan Worship Good For Progressives? (Kevin): I wonder if the necessity of paying lip service to that ultra-conservative, ideologue-above-all myth of Reagan in order to impress the base makes it harder for Republicans to appeal to moderates in the general election., plus: Voter ID Laws (tgirsch): Last weekend, I pulled a little stunt to make a point about voter ID laws. I chose to use the gun rights movement as an example here, because many of their legitimate complaints about various gun control laws … apply to voter ID laws. […]
Pingback 2/3/2008
[…] • Lean Left: Reagan Worship Good For Progressives? (Kevin): I wonder if the necessity of paying lip service to that ultra-conservative, ideologue-above-all myth of Reagan in order to impress the base makes it harder for Republicans to appeal to moderates in the general election., plus: Voter ID Laws (tgirsch): Last weekend, I pulled a little stunt to make a point about voter ID laws. I chose to use the gun rights movement as an example here, because many of their legitimate complaints about various gun control laws … apply to voter ID laws. […]
Pingback 2/3/2008
[…] • Lean Left: Reagan Worship Good For Progressives? (Kevin): I wonder if the necessity of paying lip service to that ultra-conservative, ideologue-above-all myth of Reagan in order to impress the base makes it harder for Republicans to appeal to moderates in the general election., plus: Voter ID Laws (tgirsch): Last weekend, I pulled a little stunt to make a point about voter ID laws. I chose to use the gun rights movement as an example here, because many of their legitimate complaints about various gun control laws … apply to voter ID laws. […]
Pingback 2/4/2008
“When you combine that with the fact that Democrats don’t have the equivalent myth”
Ever heard of FDR or JFK? There is not a greater political myth than that which has built up around JFK.
Comment 2/4/2008