Thread: Will today's GOP embrace Reagan's real legacy?

Will today's GOP embrace Reagan's real legacy?

By Michael MedvedPosted 15m ago |

If a contemporary Republican leader persistently promoted moderates within the party, shunned angry rhetoric for amiable bipartisanship with congressional Democrats, and proudly pushed amnesty for illegal immigrants, would Tea Party activists and other committed conservatives support and celebrate his approach?

Tea Partiers: Would Reagan have been their kind of guy?
The answer is a resoundingly obvious "no": Even though all factions of the American right honored the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth this past weekend, they've simultaneously ignored elements of the Gipper's political personality that would lead to his denunciation as a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only) in today's intraparty debates.

The complexities in Reagan's record go well beyond reluctant compromises he authorized throughout his political career — such as signing a 1967 law to legalize abortion as California's governor (a decision he later regretted),or agreeing to painful but practical tax hikes in both Sacramento and Washington.

'Defiantly different'
In three areas, Ronald Reagan took proud, principled positions that defined him as defiantly different from most of today's right-wing ideologues:

•He was the ultimate "big tent" Republican and went to great lengths to work together with moderates in his party. Unlike primary season purists in 2010, Reagan never lent his prestige to GOP purges based on exacting standards of ideological intensity. When one of his own aides challenged a centrist New Jersey senator in 1978, he did so without Reagan's support. In Reagan's often expressed view, If somebody agrees with me 80% of the time, that doesn't make him my enemy.

The most important personnel decisions of his political career involved the choice of running mates during presidential campaigns, and each time he tabbed moderates, not his fellow conservatives. Before the convention in 1976, he unsuccessfully tried to sway delegates to support his challenge to President Ford by introducing Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania, the most liberal Republican in the Senate, as his vice presidential choice.

Four years later, when he won the nomination, he first approached old rival Gerald Ford as a potential running mate, then turned to another moderate (and former opponent), George H.W. Bush, as his veep. On taking office in 1981, Reagan named James Baker (former leader of both the Ford and Bush campaigns) as his chief of staff, rather than turning to one of his own loyalists for the most powerful position in the White House.

Reagan never would have agreed with the statement by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., that "I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs." Reagan understood that 30 senators, no matter how ideologically committed, left you a powerless minority.

•Reagan relied on optimism rather than anger, proving that bipartisan cooperation need not involve abandonment of principle. As a two-term California governor, he worked successfully with the heavily Democratic legislature, then collaborated with House Speaker Tip O'Neill (who had once derided him as "a cheerleader for selfishness" ) on a wide range of legislative initiatives, including the successful restructuring of Social Security. Near the end of his term, Reagan also teamed with liberal Democrat Bill Bradley on historic tax simplification (bringing the top rate all the way down to 28%) and even reached major agreements with Soviet boss Mikhail Gorbachev.

Apocalyptic pronouncements about the end of the republic remained foreign to the unfailingly sunny figure who offered wisecracks even after receiving a bullet in his chest from a would-be assassin, and who chose a re-election campaign theme pronouncing "Morning in America." It's hard to imagine him endorsing the conclusion of Newt Gingrich— in his 2010 book To Save America— that the Obama administration "represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."

•Reagan was an enthusiastic immigration reformer who helped 3 million undocumented workers achieve legal status.Conservative activists express righteous outrage at the idea of "amnesty" for "illegal aliens," even when reformers draw the distinction between "earned legalization" and a sweeping, automatic grant of official residency.

There's no doubt, however, that Reagan favored amnesty, and openly used the word, as part of comprehensive legislation in 1986.In fairness, the bill he supported meant to stop rather than swell the flow of unauthorized border crossings, but failure to enforce its workplace restrictions undermined its effectiveness.

In any event, Reagan himself never conveyed the slightest hostility to Latino newcomers and championed America's heritage as a nation of immigrants, without talk of militarizing borders or mass deportations. In a recent cab ride in Chicago, I noticed an elaborate dashboard display, featuring American and Salvadoran flags flanking a little framed portrait of a smiling Reagan. When I asked the driver to explain, he declared: "The one flag is for my old country, the other flag is my new country, and that's the man who gave me amnesty and made me an American."

What Reagan knew
Recognizing the 40th president's distinctive appeal shouldn't lead impassioned conservatives to reconsider their reverence for Reagan, but it could produce a bracing redefinition of what principled conservatism actually means. The authentic Reagan was no dour, indignant protester; he showed that coalition-building brings more power than purges, that pragmatic optimism wins more battles than angry alarmism, and that immigration constitutes an opportunity — political as well as economic — as much as a threat.

If today's GOP leaders hope to emulate his prodigious electoral success, they should pause from their competitive claims as Reagan's true heirs and embrace the unorthodox lessons of his real legacy.

Michael Medved, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, hosts a daily, nationally syndicated radio talk show.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... 8_ST_N.htm

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George W. Bush doubled the debt in his eight years in office.

And if he maintains the current rate, Obama could double the debt if he serves eight years.

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