Getting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016

by Marcus M. Witcher

Overview

Republicans today often ask, “What would Reagan do?” The short answer: probably not what they think. Hero of modern-day conservatives, Ronald Reagan was not even conservative enough for some of his most ardent supporters in his own time—and today his practical, often bipartisan approach to politics and policy would likely be deemed apostasy. To try to get a clearer picture of what the real Reagan legacy is, in this book Marcus M. Witcher details conservatives’ frequently tense relationship with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and explores how they created the latter-day Reagan myth.

Witcher reminds us that during Reagan’s time in office, conservative critics complained that he had failed to bring about the promised Reagan Revolution—and in 1988 many Republican hopefuls ran well to the right of his policies. Notable among the dissonant acts of his administration: Reagan raised taxes when necessary, passed comprehensive immigration reform, signed a bill that saved Social Security, and worked with adversaries at home and abroad to govern effectively. Even his signature accomplishment—invoked by “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”—was highly unpopular with the Conservative Caucus, as evidenced in their newspaper ads comparing the president to Neville Chamberlain: “Appeasement is as Unwise in 1988 as in 1938.”

Reagan’s presidential library and museum positioned him above partisan politics, emphasizing his administration’s role in bringing about economic recovery and negotiating an end to the Cold War. How this legacy, as Reagan himself envisioned it, became the more grandiose version fashioned by Republicans after the 1980s tells us much about the late twentieth-century transformation of the GOP—and, as Witcher’s work so deftly shows, the conservative movement as we know it now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700628773
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	11/29/2019
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Marcus M. Witcher is a scholar-in-residence in both the Department of History and the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the coeditor of Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History, Volumes 1–3.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Evolution of Conservatives’ Perception of Reagan

Part I: Conservative Frustration with Reagan, 1945-1988

1. The Origins and Evolution of Reagan’s Economic Policies

2. The Battle for Fiscal Conservatism: Supply-Siders vs. Budget Hawks

3. The Origins of the New Right and the Seeds of Future Frustrations

4. The Battle for America’s Soul: Conservative Disillusion with Reagan on Social Issues

5. AIDS, the New Right and Reagan's Response

6. Neoconservatives, the New Right, and Reagan’s First Two Years of Foreign Policy

7. The Year of Fear: Ronald Reagan and the Transformation of America's Foreign Policy

8. The Battle for the Cold War: Conservative Frustration with the INF Treaty

Part II: The Legacy of Evolving Mythology of President Reagan: 1988-2016

9. Recasting Reagan: How the Fortieth President Framed His Legacy, 1989-1994

10. Remembering Reagan: The Reagan Legacy in Conservative Politics, 1994-1996

11. Memorializing Reagan: Enshrining the Reagan Legacy, 1996-2000

12. Reinventing Reagan: George W. Bush and the Emergence of the Reagan Myth, 2000-2004

13. Reconstructing Reagan: How the Conservatives Created a Mythical Reagan, 2004-2008

14. Resurrecting Reagan: The Tea Party Movement and the Manifestation of the Reagan Myth, 2008-20169

Conclusion: Beyond Reagan?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

A must-read for those who want a greater understanding of Reagan’s presidency and the post-presidential imagery that followed.”—Congress & the Presidency

“Backed by prodigious research, the author provides a detailed account of how the Reagan record belies hard-line conservatives’ conception of him. Highly recommended.”—Choice

“Witcher has painstakingly researched not only his position but every possible variation of criticism of Ronald Reagan from all parts of the political spectrum and even some from the apolitical.”—The American Conservative

“Getting Right with Reagan, copiously researched and smoothly written, signals that we can expect excellent work from [Witcher] in years to come.”—Claremont Review of Books

“The legend is that Ronald Reagan unified the GOP and led it to a long string of successes. This outstanding book tells the true story, which is far more complex and fascinating. With depth, balance, and subtlety, Witcher explains how Reagan went from being the leader of a fractious party to a symbol of its aspirations. Getting Right with Reagan makes a major contribution to the study of American political history, offering rich insights into the history and political uses of the Reagan myth.”—John J. Pitney, Jr., Roy P. Crocker Professor of Politics, Claremont McKenna College

“Marcus Witcher has written a bold and provocative book. Not everyone will be persuaded by his revisionist portrayal of President Reagan as a ‘pragmatist,’ or by Witcher’s contention that conservative ‘purists’ since the 1980s have constructed an idealized and mythical Reagan who owed his success to an unbending devotion to conservative principles. But readers of this volume will gain a deeper appreciation of Reagan’s immense and continuing impact on the mental landscape of the American Right.”—George H. Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945

“The American conservative movement’s adoration for Ronald Reagan is seemingly limitless and only seems to grow with each passing decade. Yet Reagan was not the unwavering standard-bearer of conservative purity that his contemporary admirers imagine—though his pragmatism and flexibility were reasons for his success. In this valuable study, Marcus Witcher provides a more nuanced picture of Reagan’s presidency, explains how conservative views of the fortieth president evolved in the years that followed, and shows the consequences of the ‘mythical Reagan.’”—George Hawley, author of Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism

“Marcus M. Witcher’s Getting Right with Reagan is a brilliant analysis of the US conservative revolution of the 1980s and beyond. It’s essential reading for anybody interested in the Cold War and the American political system. Highly recommended!” —Douglas Brinkley, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and professor of history at Rice University and author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

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