Reaganism

{{uspolitics}}{{cquote|A useful heuristic: Be very suspicious of anyone who is [[Donald_Trump|firmly entrenched in power but rails against "elites"]].|||[https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/396442881625718786 Dan Gardner]}}
'''Reaganism''' was a political perspective in the [[United States]] based on a friendly-seeming, grandfatherly-type [[Ronald Reagan|ex-actor]] [[Hypocrisy|telling us that government could do no good, and then proceeding to drastically expand the power of the Executive Branch as he saw fit]], not to mention ''exploding'' the public debt. Why anyone believed it is beyond us.

The only thing Republicans want from a candidate is 
a pet rock with an '''A''' rating from the [[National Rifle Association|NRA]]
 [[1996_U.S._presidential_election|a working pen hand]]. That's it. It's what they liked about Reagan and what they  thought they were getting in Nixon and GWB: Just some guy to sit in the oval office and shake hands with girl scouts, while the real work was being done in the Republican-controlled Congress. The Speaker sets the agenda, they bring him a big blue folder and a nice black pen, he whips out his autograph and signs that bill into law. The last thing they want is someone with an agenda. But, boy oh boy, did they get Presidents with agendas.<ref>Salsman, Richard M. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardsalsman/2013/01/28/when-it-comes-to-abuse-of-presidential-power-obama-is-a-mere-piker/#4e6f7f50601a "When It Comes To Abuse Of Presidential Power, Obama Is A Mere Piker"], ''[[Forbes]]'' (1/28/13 at 08:00 AM).</ref>

==Lies of note==
Prominent lies promoted by Mr. Reagan include the following:
*The "[[free market]]" is ''always'' more efficient than the government at providing solutions to problems. (See [[universal health care]])
*The "[[government]]" is incapable of solving a country's problems (See [[Hurricane Katrina]])
*Some woman somewhere on welfare [[Welfare queen|had a Cadillac and a color TV]]. (He made this up<ref>[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html The Mendacity Index], ''Washington Monthly''</ref>)
*Hardworking blue collar Americans should hate suffering [[poor]] Americans for eating their tax dollars instead of working their asses off for giant [[corporation]]s themselves. (See [[trade union]])
*The "rich" are a beleaguered and [[supply side economics|overtaxed]] suffering demographic. (Who pay well for political campaigns!)

==History==
Candidate [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] ran against Reagan in the '68 [[Republican Party|Republican]] race.  He won the nomination by running as an outsider, refusing to make any pledges or cut any deals. The day after the 29th Republican Convention, [[Bullshit|he exposed the deal he made]] with the southerners to ensure their support in the general election: the appointment of [[Spiro Agnew]] as Veep. Agnew was knighted by the southern delegation after he behaved boorishly to the blacks of Baltimore that spring.<ref>[http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/timeline/Agnew_Speech_1968_to_Community_leadeers.pdf "Governor Agnew’s Speech to Baltimore’s Black Community Leadership on April 11, 1968"].</ref><ref>Lippman Jr., Theo, [http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-04-05/news/1998095008_1_agnew-strom-thurmond-nixon "How the 1968 Riots Made Agnew's Career"], ''The Baltimore Sun'' 4.5.98.</ref>

In his speech, Nixon condemned [[Lyndon Johnson|LBJ's]] [[welfare state]], [[Social Security]], and [[Judicial activism|activist judges]] who supported [[Segregation|integrated schools]]. (As POTUS, Nixon concurred with [[Barry Goldwater|Goldwater]] that the Supreme Court was "not, necessarily, the law of the land", though probably in [[Watergate|a slightly different way]] than Barry intended.) Nixon split hairs on the subject of [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]: Five months earlier, he had said, "There is no alternative to the continuation of the war"; now he was suddenly talking like a peace candidate, insisting that "the time [had] come for negotiation"; but in case that sounded like appeasement, he quickly reminded everybody that it was "time we started to act like a great nation," [[Escape hatch|whatever that meant.]]<ref>[http://watergate.info/1968/08/08/nixon-accepts-republican-nomination-for-president.html Nixon Accepts The Republican Party Nomination for President], 1968 RNC.</ref> [[Gore Vidal]], who covered the RNC that year, reported with awe:

{{quotebox|"He just had to say that," murmur his supporters whenever he contradicts himself, and they admire him for it. After all, his form of hypocrisy is deeply American...In short, there is no new Nixon, only the old Nixon experimenting with new campaigning techniques in response, [[Horseshoe theory|as the Stalinists used to say]], to new necessities.<ref>''The New York Review of Books, 9.12.68</ref>}}

Part of the reason why Reaganism persists, apart from the fact it works (Nixon was re-elected, as was Reagan and [[George W. Bush|Bush Jr.]]), is that most of the hacks in his cabinet were awarded positions in later Republican administrations.<ref>Dean, John W., [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/01/07/son-of-nixon.html "Son of Nixon"], Daily Beast 1.7.09.</ref> With Nixon, he initially seemed like a safe bet. He was a "local boy done good", scandal-free, with an impressive track record in getting votes. But then it turned out he’s nuts, too: He nearly brought down the republic, provoked a constitutional crisis and flirted with [[dictatorship]].

The GOP was determined not to make the same mistake again.  They picked a retired actor and General Electric spokesman who could convincingly deliver a speech (even if he vomited nonsense whenever the teleprompter was switched off<ref>Corn, David, [http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2007/11/nixon-tape-reagan-was-shallow-and-limited-mental-capacity "Nixon on Tape: Reagan Was 'Shallow' and of 'Limited Mental Capacity'"], ''Mother Jones'' 11.15.02. '''[[Henry Kissinger|Kissinger]]''': He's shallow. He's got no—he's an actor. When he gets a line he does it very well. He said, 'Hell, people are remembered not for what they do, but for what they say. Can't you [[Style over substance|find a few good lines?]]' [Chuckles.] That's really an actor's approach to foreign policy."</ref>). Reagan capped his 1988 farewell speech with the classic line, "man is not free unless [[Small government|government is limited.]]" That quote is still a rallying cry for conservatives, but the speech followed [[Big lie|eight years of government expansion]]: not only did the federal workforce double under Reagan, the national debt was tripled.<ref>Park, Alex, [http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/ronald-reagan-big-government-legacy "These Charts Show How Ronald Reagan Actually Expanded the Federal Government"], ''Mother Jones'' 12.20.14</ref>

Bush II fits the bill because he is an imperious, incurious, pseudo-cowboy idiot,<ref>Joy Gray, Kalli, [http://wonkette.com/588376/george-w-bush-real-glad-he-won-iraq-war-misses-commander-guy-cosplay "George W. Bush Real Glad He Won Iraq War, Misses Commander Guy Cosplay"], Wonkette 6.15.15.</ref> with a profound need ''not'' to know,<ref>Baker Peter, [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/magazine/the-final-insult-in-the-bush-cheney-marriage.html "The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage"], ''[[New York Times]]'' 10.10.13.</ref> and as such he was easily bamboozled by [[Dick Cheney|Cheney]], [[Donald Rumsfeld|Rumsfield]], [[Paul Wolfowitz|Wolfowitz]], [[Karl Rove|Rove]], [[Condoleezza Rice|Rice]], [[William Kristol|Kristol]], Feith, and several others.<ref>Josh Roglin and Eli Lake, [http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-09/cia-torture-report-bush-was-kept-in-the-dark "CIA Torture Report: Bush Was Kept in the Dark for Years"], Bloomberg 9.9.14.</ref><ref>Bouie, Jamelle, [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/06/paul_wolfowitz_bill_kristol_and_douglas_feith_should_be_ignored_the_neocons.html "Fool Me Once"], Slate 6.6.14. '''Bouie''': "If we lived in a reasonable world, [Douglas] Feith would be barred from talking on the subject of Iraq. As it stands, [[Wingnut welfare|he’s making the rounds of commentary.]]"</ref>   More government overreach and debt ensued.<ref>[[Nick Gillespie|Gillespie, Nick]], [https://reason.com/archives/2009/01/26/bush-was-a-big-government-disa "Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster"], ''Reason'' 1.6.09.</ref>

===Today's usage===
{{cquote|When Trump says he's going to "repeal and replace [[Obamacare]]" — that's Trump's "Born To Run" — the crowd roars appreciatively. Getting rid of Common Core is Trump's "Thunder Road"...Recently, Trump has taken to yelling, "Who's gonna pay for the wall?" Crowds respond enthusiastically, "[[Fractal wrongness|Mexico!]]"|||Sopan Deb<ref>Deb, [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-inside-of-a-donald-trump-rally/ "Inside a Donald Trump Rally"], CBS (1/20/16 6:00 AM)</ref>}}

Today's Republicans reflexively use this strategy all the time.<ref>[[Matt Taibbi|Taibbi, Matt]], [http://www.alternet.org/story/100551/mad_dog_palin "Mad Dog Palin"], originally posted in ''Rolling Stone'' 9/26/08. '''Taibbi''': "You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt...pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore. And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them [[Sarah Palin|a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of ''Roseanne'' as part of your presidential ticket.]]"</ref> In fact, the entire field of GOP 2016 candidates for President (minus Rand Paul) are entirely absent of ideas,<ref>Luhby, Tami, [http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/17/news/economy/gop-debates-middle-class-bernie-sanders/index.html "Bernie Sanders Kept Waiting For GOP to Talk About the Middle Class"], [[CNN]] (9/18/15 8:27am EST).</ref><ref>Tanenhaus, Sam, [http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-05-18/the-gop-is-campaigning-for-george-w-bush-s-third-term "The GOP Is Campaigning for George W. Bush’s Third Term"], Bloomberg 5.19.15.</ref> instead expressing a wish to dismantle or repeal this or that;<ref>[http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/republican-presidential-candidates-offer-next-nothing-working-and-middle-class "'GOP Economic Debate Offers Next to Nothing for Working- and Middle-Class Americans"] Alternet (11/10/15)</ref> or in [[Donald Trump|Trump's]] case, bald-faced lies<ref>Joy Gray, Kalli, [http://wonkette.com/597241/politifact-lie-of-the-year-is-every-single-word-out-of-donald-trumps-face-hole "PolitiFact 'Lie Of The Year' Is Every Single Word Out Of Donald Trump’s Face Hole"], Wonkette (12/22/15 10:15am EST).</ref> and pie-in-the-sky promises that not even a two-term President could back up in reality, much less a newcomer with zero political capital.<ref>Magary, Drew, [http://www.gq.com/story/trump-supporters-gop-campaign-iowa "What Kind of Person Would Vote For Donald Trump? These People"], GQ (8.4.15 6:00am EST).</ref>  They're all sizzle and no steak — just the type that incurious, low-information [[Tea Party movement|Tea Partiers]] and Libertarians will vote for. 

You must admit he's getting some serious mileage out of essentially yelling, ''"It'll be so good, your head will spin", "I'm smart", I'm rich,"'' and ''"I'm Donald fucking Trump"''. The only thing he hasn't lied about was his family. Like, presumably that really is his wife and his kids. Those would be statements of fact. (Naturally his attraction to his daughter would also be something factual.) Beyond that, it seems like everyone falls silent if he breaks his promises, then revises their political opinions when Trump speaks about an issue. It's a weirdo cult of personality: let Trump [[Texas sharpshooter fallacy|shoot the arrow first and paint a bullseye around it afterward]].

===In the UK===
In Britain, there was a very similar political movement referred to as "Thatcherism," named for the [[Margaret Thatcher|Iron Lady]] who advocated the same principles.  The impact of this was [[Monetarism|slightly less fun]] that of the States. 
Anti-establishment politicians are rising everywhere, usually by railing against an elite establishment, such as 'Westminster elites' or 'Washington elites'. In Britain, politicians have managed to point to an even higher, more shadowy elite in [[Euroskepticism|Brussels]], allowing the strange situation where Eton-educated [[Boris Johnson]] and millionaire banker [[Zac Goldsmith]] can paint themselves as anti-elite. The tolerance of UK voters for the character pitfalls of current Prime Minister Boris Johnson clearly falls into this category. Evidence of his frequent lying, sackings, incompetence, laziness, hypocrisy, corruption, croneyism and numerous (but unknown number of) children conceived in and out of wedlock - conclusive evidence that he has never understood the concept of withdrawal (including his cocked-up attempt at Brexit) - yet remains, for the time being, surprisingly popular among a generally conservative and moralistic but passive electorate.

==See also==
*[[Fun:Obamunism|Obamunism]]; seemingly the polar opposite
*[[Donald Trump]] - In many ways the ultimate result of Reaganism, he is nonetheless better known for pioneering "[[Trumpism]]", which operates similarly but is far more openly [[Fascism|fascist]].
*[[Small government]]
*[[Social Darwinism]]
*[[Starve the beast]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:United States politics]]
[[Category:Conservative deceit]]
[[Category:Political strategery]]
[[Category:Political terms]]

Categories: United States politics, Conservative deceit, Political strategery, Political terms