The Death of an Ideology
by Phil
Ronald Reagan is dead.
That may be a shocking revelation to many, but the Gipper has left the building. And for the first time since his death in 2004, we can finally send his molested political ideology with him. I admire President Reagan, but it’s time for us to move on.
As I joyfully watch the current Republican party begin their long journey through the wilderness, I am struck by my thoughts of Ronald Reagan. He was MY President…the man who was in charge through the greater years of my youth. I trusted him, I admired him, I felt safer with him and I will always feel a bit angry when those bastards went after him during the Iran-Contra hearings. He was the perfect leader for the perfect days of my youth. Maybe I’m just sentimental, but he deserves his face on a coin or a bill.
But, the Gipper has passed, and he can now take his politics – or the current, perverted version – with him.
This past election has created more than its fair share of historical significance. Undeniable. But one thing many of us are witnessing is the death of an ideology. We watched a political party fall from the tree of America this November, and it was well overdue. What was once was bright and colorful, is now brittle, frail and ready to be added to the compost heap. It’s time to rake the leaves, prune the tree, and move forward into the coming spring. They had it coming, and Ronnie must be rolling over in his grave.
But, before we look forward, we must look back. What happened? Where did it all go wrong?
Ronald Reagan was the perfect leader for America and the world in the 1980′s. He was gilded by the age of McCarthyism and the very real threat of communism. He was elected at a time when an untested, brilliant-minded Democratic President (!) just couldn’t get anything done. He came in and restored a country to economic stability and a new place as the shining city on the hill. He fought the evil empire, and he won.
The amazing ideological victory for Ronald Reagan was his ability to turn the fight against the Soviet Union and communism into a moral battle. He was a very conservative, God-fearing President, and he brought his faith with him to the White House. He used it to rally his country behind a common enemy. This enemy was real, it was foreign and it had nuclear weapons. We believed and we trusted him…and honestly, we didn’t have any reasons not to. And you know what? We won.
The way politics work; the party of record will always take what has been successful recently, and try and apply it to new problems. It has been this way for generations. The Republican Party took the ideology of Reagan and applied it to everything they stood for. This worked for a while, but with a change in times come a change in the challenges. Eric Hoffer once said, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” This is what has happened to the Reagan ideology under the modern the Republican Party. Under George H.W. Bush, it became a business, then under the Gingrich-led congress, and, eventually, under George W. Bush, it became the corrupt racket that it is (was).
The mistakes came not exclusively in the Reagan philosophy itself, but in the way it was applied to different problems in a different time. In the 80′s we all had a common enemy, and a common goal. ANYONE could get behind the fight against communism. But after 1988, the world changed…literally! Cold war philosophies work during the cold war, but when the world changes, so must the way we govern.
Over the next two decades, the Republican Party used this moral battle to fight on a number of fronts. They fought big government (while still growing the government), the environment, abortion, liberalism and Bill Clinton. The problem was, in turning all of these issues into moral battles, they alienated people. It’s one thing to use morals against communism – a lifeless, Godless political ideology of evil – but it’s something entirely different to use the same tactics against your own citizens and their beliefs.
Out of this culture came the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s of the world, a group of ghouls hell-bent on propagating hate and destroying all that was unclean and unholy – in their own minds. The witch hunting and culture wars that we have seen over the past eight years have shred the very fabric that Reagan wove. This is where the Republicans and their hit-men greatly underestimated America. It worked for a while, and it was given new life when 9/11 hit. But you can only create fear and loathing for only so long. Even when you find a new common enemy – terrorism – the Republicans botched it. The GOP had gotten so used to creating fear to win battles, we turned our fear-mongering towards the world, and one of its largest religions. The new war is not a cold war, it’s a holy war. And now the world views America much differently. So much for being the city on the hill.
Demonization is no way to win elections or trust in your own people, at least not in the long term. That was not what Reagan had intended when he brought his moral fabric to the office. In his speech at the 1992 GOP Convention, he said, “And whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.” That sounds a lot like the newly elected President, not the party of Reagan!
What the GOP has done over the past 20 years is destroy the very thing that inspired them. They turned it into a racket, and they are now being punished for it. Reagan inspired people, built a trust and a renewed sense of pride in America. This ideology created an entire generation of political thought, but now it’s played out its course. A new direction was charted on November 4th, and it will usher in a new generation of political thought. The irony is it was formed on much the same foundation set forth by Reagan – youth, hope, change and a better tomorrow.
Rest in peace Mr. President. We’ll take it from here.
Wow,pretty deap. Sounds like Phil has thought this one through very thoroughly. The party of Regan has lost its way and its original nemesis. I agree with both Phil and Mr. Hoffer; “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
I am watching Frontline on PBS right now about Lee Atwater. Granted a story on PBS would most likely not be a puff piece on a Republican Operative but this gives an idea at to where we went wrong. Whether it was him or not the problem began when it became about winning and not about the truth. We have seen it ever since then. Unfortunately, we are too young to know how prominent it was before that. Without a good grasp of history we cannot know where it turned. And without understanding history we are doomed to repeat it.
Another thing that became obvious was that without a true separation and distance between the candidates and the press. It only becomes clear what was overlooked after the glow of the campaign wears off. It happened with G. H. W. Bush; it happened with Clinton; it happened with G.W. Bush. Only time will tell what will happen with President Elect Obama. Pray for the best.
One thing to keep in mind however is that just because the conservative movement has lost its way does not mean to me that I should change teams, it only means we need to fight to return to the correct principles.
Ya, the Repubs botched things up good for themselves, and I could see McCain playing more of the same party schizophrenia games this current administration is playing. So, I’m glad it’s Obama and the Dems for now, and I wish them the best of luck. Bush essentially set up a pseudo-socialist agenda while trying to maintain a sort of capitalist anarchy that was created during this power-centric identity crisis. Democrats know the art of “Socialism” better than Repubs do, so they may be able to bring it to a solid system, even if it’s an undesirable one, at least it would be stable. If it releases some of the pressure from the backs of the middle-class in the process, I’m for it. I think all the Dems can do is hit the brakes and hope the train will stop, but until government spending is put under control, this train will never be able to actually reverse itself. I don’t think the Dems have it in them to accomplish reversal, but if the Repubs can take two steps back, realize where they went wrong and correct their wayward ideology, then they do have the philosophies that can achieve real success. Ron Paul has a great article on CNN today about it: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/paul.republican/index.html
It is very interesting that people think McCain lost because of fear mongering. The fear mongering was the media’s way of trying to counter the awful questions that could not be answered about our new President. Those that were involved in campaigning would realize that the GOP campaign was soft and uncreative. Palin was the only creative part, I felt like I was doing voter identification on Election Day. I talk the team leader in letting me take a group off the phones and carry a big McCain sign in the ghetto of Las Vegas. (Only because that is where we were, I would not recommend doing it there) Let me tell you what I saw, people came to me and said they are voting for Obama in a violent manor. When asked why, they did not know, but they seemed to believe their rent and cars will now be paid for. I also noticed that Obama’s camp used text messaging in a fantastic way to reach people. This was clear by the way the Obama campaigners almost instantly showed up to wave banners directly a crossed the street from us. Always, with just a little more people than we had. A friend that was a campaigner on their side confirmed that for me. There is no doubt, they had a fantastic campaign and that is why they won. I just wish I was 45 and knew that I had a chance to be the next president by committing to socialist ideals, and saying “Yes we can!” Now as for Reagan, I know his love for the county and his ideals still run in the veins of the Republican Party. I am only a Republican because I believe in the principles that come with it. I know that the principles are nearest to family virtue. John McCain was not my first choice or my second but he was the closest to what I felt would help me keep my family in a good and high quality life style!