ably will skew younger and more Reagan won, defeated the Soviets and for Bush expecting him to be another
diverse, it also must widen its tent high taxes, and his vision was vindi- four years of Reagan policies were
to include conservatives of varying cated. The bad news is that, without disappointed. Bush lost in 1992 to Bill
stripes more comfortably. this glue, the conservative coalition Clinton, in part because many disap-
“We became what we ran against,” at the heart of the Republican Party pointed conservatives stayed home on
Ralph Reed, former head of the is showing cracks and could break Election Day, observers contend.
Christian Coalition, apart unless another great leader or It was all supposed to be very dif-
tells Newsmax. cohesive cause emerges. ferent in 2000, when Bush’s son,
“This defeat is an In the 2008 Republican prima- Texas Gov. George W. Bush, beat
opportunity to get ries, the candidates paid a lot of Vice President Al Gore by the nar-
back to principles, lip service to Reagan, Edwards says, rowest of margins. Conservatives
to conservative val- adding, “But when you get down to disenchanted with the elder Bush
“
To win back
ues, and to recon- specifi cs, they are tilting away from expected the younger man, a born-
nect with America’s Reagan toward some new mix.” again evangelical Christian raised
the Reagan grass roots.” in Texas, to be more of a Reagan
Democrats,
To do that, Reed Big-Government Conservatism Republican.
we need
and others suggest Far from it.
to address
looking to the GOP The new mix began with Reagan’s In the wake of the terrorist attacks
successes of the vice president and eventual succes- of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush sent troops
their greatest not-so-distant past. sor, George H.W. Bush, a patrician into Afghanistan and then Iraq,
concerns: The
Ronald Reagan New England moderate Republican meanwhile implementing the costly
invasion of
built his winning who muted his differences with con- Department of Homeland Security
their country
Republican coali- servatism and became a sincere con- within the federal government. He
tion on three sturdy vert to the pro-life position on abor- continued to rile conservatives resist-
and the export legs: national secu- tion as Reagan’s running mate. ing demands to wall off America’s
of their jobs.
”
rity, social-religious, In Bush’s successful 1988 presi- porous southern border with Mexico.
and fi scal-libertari- dential race against Massachusetts He signed into law a $40 billion-a-
an conservatives. Part of Reagan’s Gov. Michael Dukakis, he preached year drug benefi t under Medicare,
genius was rooted in his ability to “compassionate conservatism,” a term one endorsed by liberal interest
balance these three dynamic, some- offensive to those who believed conser- groups such as AARP and Democrats
times contentious, factions and their vatism is inherently compassionate. in Congress.
personalities and agendas. At times, Bush also fl ubbed famously with If Bush was guided by a philos-
it must have been like yoking an ox, his declaration: “Read my lips, no new ophy, it was neoconservatism. The
a wild mustang, and a bull moose all taxes,” a promise he was forced to neoconservatives were a small fac-
at once and coordinating their com- break under pressure from congres- tion of the Republican Party when
bined energies to pull the Republican sional Democrats. Those who voted Reagan came to power in 1980. At
Party and America to the right.
Rebuilding what Reagan wrought
won’t be easy, experts note. CONCESSION The GOP is so
Part of what fueled the Reagan fractured that the insiders’
Revolution was a rare convergence
summit to plot rebuilding
of a great man and a unique historic
would have been necessary
moment, both of which have passed.
even if John McCain had
The unifying threat of the Soviet
won, an attendee said.
Union is gone, observes Lee Edwards,
conservatism scholar at The Heritage
Foundation. Even President-elect
Obama is unlikely to try restoring
the 70 percent top marginal income
tax rate that President Reagan cut by
more than half, or to re-create the
gigantic welfare state against which
GES
Reagan mobilized public opinion.
TY IMA
Such rallying issues were the glue
GET
that held Reagan’s conservative coali-
tion together. The good news is that JOE RAEDLE/
++ Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government finds a need for the money it gets. 7/22/1981
58
NEWSMAX / JANUARY 2009
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