Even Reagan Wasn’t a Reagan Republican

[ShawnD1]

Nixon is still a better president than Obama will ever be.

Nixon passed socialized medicine. Obama failed.

 

[Linflas]

And the one who favored Universal Health care, yes. He'd be considered a liberal by today's standards. Hell, even Barry Goldwater would be, and like the OP mentions, Reagan would probably be considered a RINO by today's standards. Conservatism has moved pretty far to the right over the years, hasn't it?

Nixon was never a conservative, he was mostly a Rockefeller Republican. Conservatives have never favored "Universal Health Care" if by that phrase you mean single payer government controlled health care.

 

[Mani]

Nixon was never a conservative, he was mostly a Rockefeller Republican. Conservatives have never favored "Universal Health Care" if by that phrase you mean single payer government controlled health care.

You're assigning your own definition of conservatism. He was considered conservative at the time, and ran on a firmly conservative platform. Now some felt once he was in power that he was not conservative enough, but no republican president has been free of that accusation and Nixon was still considered solidly conservative by most of his contemporaries. The national review for example did not endorse Eisenhower as they considered him insufficiently conservative but did not hesitate to support Nixon.

 

[ShawnD1]

This raises an interesting question of what the democrats were doing back then. How left were they?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

You're assigning your own definition of conservatism.

Elsewhere we've a discussion going on about that. I do not believe a consistent definition of Conservative exists which is useful in any real sense. Take Goldwater for example. He was more or less the gold standard (no pun intended) for what a Conservative stood for. He never would have tolerated much of what is going on today.

There is no good "box" when traditional values are at odds with modern.

 

[Siddhartha]

Interesting article. I always thought Nixon was some kind of hardcore conservative weirdo, but in this article he sounds like a pretty reasonable guy when it comes to politics.

Back then, Mr Nixon was a moderate Republican. Mr Goldwater was the conservative wing and John Lindsay was the Liberal wing of the GOP.

Today's Democrats including Mr Obama are somewhere right of Mr Nixon. That is why I always get a chuckle when I hear the "conservatives" call them the fringe left.

 

[Tom]

This raises an interesting question of what the democrats were doing back then. How left were they?

Carter worked hard to fight inflation, balance the budget, and aggressively fight to rescue hostages, which was the terrorism of that time.

How left is that ?

Want to know what current "conservatives" are ? Greedy and unrealistic.

They have nothing to do with conservatism, they just don't want to pay taxes. That's the extent of their "philosophy".

 

[Siddhartha]

This raises an interesting question of what the democrats were doing back then. How left were they?

They were left of the GOP. They supported the Civil Right Movement, LBJ's Great Society programs, going to the moon, education opportunities for more people, protection of the environment, Women's rights, etc. They were the War Party, for example Korea and Viet Nam.

 

[BigDH01]

This. Newsweek is no different from the Huffington Post or the Daily Kos except for removing the profanity, misspellings, and references to Hitler.

Then you can simply read the Mises Institute's critique.

http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=488

 

[Pepsei]

it was Reagan that asked Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the wall, so we should not build a great wall of america.

I prefer enforcing the current law and use deadly force.

 

[hal2kilo]

Back then, Mr Nixon was a moderate Republican. Mr Goldwater was the conservative wing and John Lindsay was the Liberal wing of the GOP.

Today's Democrats including Mr Obama are somewhere right of Mr Nixon. That is why I always get a chuckle when I hear the "conservatives" call them the fringe left.

This/

I blame it on talk radio

 

[HumblePie]

Reagan started off Democrat and went Repub. He said a lot of good things and did a few of them. Did a few things wrong as well. Like most people, he's not perfect but in my opinion was a decent enough prez. There are a few things I wish he had not done as I think were are feeling a few of the repercussions of his mistakes, but that's in the past.

I never thought of Reagan as a hardcore conservative at all.

 

[Siddhartha]

Carter worked hard to fight inflation, balance the budget, and aggressively fight to rescue hostages, which was the terrorism of that time.

How left is that ?

Want to know what current "conservatives" are ? Greedy and unrealistic.

They have nothing to do with conservatism, they just don't want to pay taxes. That's the extent of their "philosophy".

The problem you are having is letting the GOP and their talking heads, Limbaugh, Beck, etc, define the US political spectrum. Before the Reagan Era, Mr Carter was considered to be a moderate. Which at the time pissed off a lot of the Democrat party.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Reagan started off Democrat and went Repub. He said a lot of good things and did a few of them. Did a few things wrong as well. Like most people, he's not perfect but in my opinion was a decent enough prez. There are a few things I wish he had not done as I think were are feeling a few of the repercussions of his mistakes, but that's in the past.

I never thought of Reagan as a hardcore conservative at all.

Bring back Ronnie!

 

[her209]

Nixon passed socialized medicine. Obama failed.

Nixon withdrew from Vietnam. Obama hasn't.

 

[ElFenix]

nixon's a better libuhral than obama!

 

[CallMeJoe]

Nixon withdrew from Vietnam. Obama hasn't.

Clearly, withdrawing American troops from Vietnam should be President Obama's top priority!

 

[CallMeJoe]

Bring back Ronnie!

He couldn't do a much worse job dead than he did alive...

 

[her209]

Clearly, withdrawing American troops from Vietnam should be President Obama's top priority!

Yes, that's exactly what I was getting at. Fail.

 

[Thump553]

Nixon is still a better president than Obama will ever be.

You obviously didn't live through the Nixon Adminstration to make such an utterly clueless remark.

I thought the article was generally interesting. IMO it strained a bit to protray Nixon's liberal side-the good things Nixon did like ending Vietnam, were done because he was boxed into doing so IMO. The article brought up some things I had forgotten about-like Reagan's pro-gay stances, and generally pro-abortion (before legislating morality trumped individual rights in the GOP). I had also forgotten about George HW Bush's cap and trade law regarding acid rain, which has made a huge difference to the forests of New England. It also reminded me what a great guy Gerald Ford was, despite him being almost universally pilloried. George HW Bush could have been a great President if he remained his own man rather than falling under the spell of Reagan. HW paid the price for Reagan's voodoo economics.

 

[HGC]

The fiscal policy section of why Reagan was supposedly not a Reaganite is all leftist lies and distortions, the usual ones they've been repeating for decades. The biggest is that Reagan was a tax increaser.

Yes, Reagan raised taxes after he lowered them. He didn't want to. The congress was Democrat controlled. He cut a deal to raise taxes $1 in exchange for lowering spending $3. Congress reneged on the cuts and kept the tax increases. Reagan later said it was one of his biggest mistakes. Still, Reagan gave a net tax cut over the course of his administration. An extremely huge one.

 

[UberNeuman]

The fiscal policy section of why Reagan was supposedly not a Reaganite is all leftist lies and distortions, the usual ones they've been repeating for decades. The biggest is that Reagan was a tax increaser.

Yes, Reagan raised taxes after he lowered them. He didn't want to. The congress was Democrat controlled. He cut a deal to raise taxes $1 in exchange for lowering spending $3. Congress reneged on the cuts and kept the tax increases. Reagan later said it was one of his biggest mistakes. Still, Reagan gave a net tax cut over the course of his administration. An extremely
huge one.

So, the great "leader" wasn't a leader, but lead by the nose of a democratic controlled congress?

/doesn't seem like a leader at all.....
//more like a RINO....

 

[HGC]

So, the great "leader" wasn't a leader, but lead by the nose of a democratic controlled congress?

/doesn't seem like a leader at all.....
//more like a RINO....

Congress, not the president, has the power to raise or lower taxes and spending. Reagan got a democratic congress to pass massive supply-side tax cuts. It has an historic feat of leadership.

 

[UberNeuman]

Congress, not the president, has the power to raise or lower taxes and spending. Reagan got a democratic congress to pass massive supply-side tax cuts. It has an historic feat of leadership.

hmmm... leadership or bi-partisanship.

/bi-partisanship = rinotaint...

 

[Siddhartha]

The fiscal policy section of why Reagan was supposedly not a Reaganite is all leftist lies and distortions, the usual ones they've been repeating for decades. The biggest is that Reagan was a tax increaser.

Yes, Reagan raised taxes after he lowered them. He didn't want to. The congress was Democrat controlled. He cut a deal to raise taxes $1 in exchange for lowering spending $3. Congress reneged on the cuts and kept the tax increases. Reagan later said it was one of his biggest mistakes. Still, Reagan gave a net tax cut over the course of his administration. An extremely huge one.

Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_policy_of_the_Ronald_Reagan_administration

Which fits my memory of what was going on back then. Now if you think anything negative about Mr Reagan's years is "all leftist lies and distortions" you have a problem with reality.