Reagan Conservatism Is Alive and Well

The alleged death of Regan conservatism, proclaimed even by many on the right, is not just greatly exaggerated — it’s outright wrong.

It has to be wrong because Reagan conservatism is true conservatism, and conservatism conserves the time-tested principles, values, and traditions that are, well, true. Ronald Reagan himself put it this way: 

Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from willingness to learn, not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before. The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind.

Reagan there was speaking almost verbatim from conservatism’s preeminent philosophical spokesman, Russell Kirk (1918–1994), who had quoted G. K. Chesterton on that combined wisdom. Kirk called conservatism not an ideology but an attitude. Conservatives endeavor to conserve what Kirk and Edmund Burke (1729–1797) described as an “enduring moral order.” Think about that: a moral order that endures. Sure, a country and culture and its corrupt people can leap off a cliff and descend to hell in a handbasket, but an enduring moral order nonetheless remains, rooted in the timeless traditions of biblical and natural law that the conservative conserves.

Reagan conservatism is genuine conservatism. If it isn’t winning today for Republicans, well, that’s not the fault of conservatism; that’s the fault of the conservatives. The problem isn’t the message but the messenger.

Sure, I’m the first to acknowledge that certain such principles, especially those related to eternal teachings on matters like marriage, family, life, and gender, are now rejected by wide swaths of a degenerate culture, but that doesn’t mean the principles are wrong. And sure, a Republican candidate running on conservative positions on marriage, family, life, and gender can today lose on that platform. But still, there is more to conservatism, and Reagan conservatism, than moral–social issues. Ronald Reagan was both a social and economic conservative, and he urged fellow conservatives to embrace both.

In 2014, I published a book titled 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative. It has gone through several printings. The Young America’s Foundation has a special edition of the book, which it has given out to students nationwide by the tens of thousands. That book has resonated with conservative youth because it lays out succinctly what Ronald Reagan really believed — a handy thing to know given that countless conservative candidates since the 1980s have called themselves Reagan conservatives. Here are the eleven principles: Freedom, Faith, Family, Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life, American Exceptionalism, the Founders’ Wisdom and Vision, Lower Taxes, Limited Government, Peace Through Strength, Anti-communism, and Belief in the Individual.

I need not delineate each of those principles here. Most are self-evident to readers of this magazine. Our readers, too, will agree that Ronald Reagan articulated those beliefs with splendid appeal to the nation at large, in a way that won him two landslide elections. Reagan, an unflinching and unapologetic conservative, twice won states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and even ultra-liberal Massachusetts.

Reagan’s conservatism never lost at the ballot box, nor in the eyes of the American public. Reagan’s successor, George H. W. Bush, won the presidency in November 1988 because Americans felt he was their best chance at something approximating a third Reagan term.

Reagan conservatism never died, even when Bush lost in November 1992 (especially because Bush abandoned Reagan’s tax cuts). Newt Gingrich viably resurrected it in 1994 with his tremendous capture of Congress by conservative Republicans. Pretty much every major conservative running for national office since Reagan left the White House in January 1989 has extolled his core principles.

So, what accounts for the current claims of the death of Reagan conservatism? I think the claims are more of a complaint, an attitude, not one of conservatism but of defeatism. They come from folks on our side who didn’t like the rise of neoconservatism during the George W. Bush years and, more so, today lament Donald Trump’s inability to exceed 50 percent of the vote against the unlikable Hillary Clinton, the pathetic Joe Biden, and the downright awful Kamala Harris. (Even if Trump wins in November 2024, I don’t think it will be with 50 percent–plus of the vote; he never polls above 50 percent.) 

Of course, the Trump years have seen a new kind of conservatism, or Republicanism. It is decidedly more populist, nationalist, and even protectionist. Still, if you look at those eleven principles of a Reagan conservative, most have been taken up by Trump. Trump certainly heralds the ideas of freedom, American exceptionalism (it was Reagan who in 1980 coined the now-Trumpian phrase “Make America Great Again”), lower taxes, limited government, peace through strength (particularly against the likes of the communist Chinese), and belief in the individual. Really, if you take a hard look at the eleven principles, there isn’t one that Trump and his supporters reject.

And even if one doubts that Donald Trump is a believer on matters like faith or the sanctity and dignity of human life, as Ronald Reagan was, he at least appealed to and has been supported by those constituencies. More so, to Trump’s credit, he did way more for the pro-life cause than Reagan was able to achieve. That includes appointing three Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — who reversed Roe v. Wade. Of Reagan’s three picks, Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor were profound disappointments on the life issue and much more. Indeed, they affirmed Roe via the hideous 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which contained the stupidest statement in the history of high-court jurisprudence, namely Kennedy’s laughable “mystery clause.” 

Ronald Reagan batted only one for three on his Supreme Court picks: Antonin Scalia was a fabulous choice. Kennedy and O’Connor were grave betrayals. Trump’s three high-court picks, by contrast, have all been home runs.

But to return to the point: Today’s leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, could check the Reagan box on pretty much all those Reagan principles. At the least, the policies that President Trump pursued align with those Reagan principles.

That being the case, why hasn’t Trump had greater success with this Reagan conservatism if Reagan conservatism isn’t dead and is, indeed, as my article here proclaims, alive and well?

The answer isn’t the principles but the person. Donald Trump can’t get over 50 percent of the popular vote because over 50 percent of the populace loathes the man. They don’t merely dislike him; they hate his guts. Conversely, Ronald Reagan was the most-liked figure of his generation. Over the last one hundred years, only Eisenhower and FDR compare in terms of likability among presidents.

Remember that Reagan’s conservative predecessor for the GOP presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater, was just as principled as Reagan but, like Trump, was not liked. Goldwater was slaughtered by LBJ in 1964. He won only six states and lost the popular vote 61 percent to 39 percent.

How did Reagan fare with conservative principles similar to Goldwater’s? He did profoundly better. In 1980, he crushed Jimmy Carter, an incumbent president, by 51 percent to 41 percent (there was a third-party candidate, John Anderson). Reagan won 44 of 50 states and took the Electoral College 489 to 49. In 1984, Reagan received nearly 60 percent of the votes, won an incredible 49 of 50 states, and took the Electoral College by an astounding 525 to 13. He did a total reversal of Goldwater; same principles but different personalities.

It was said that whereas Barry Goldwater was conservative with a frown, Ronald Reagan was conservative with a smile. That was spot-on accurate. Reagan not only smiled, but joked, laughed, and communicated so well that he will be forever remembered in American politics as the Great Communicator.

Donald Trump oozes personality, but he lacks Reagan’s winsome disposition. That winsomeness is a winner. Likewise, so is conservatism. Successful politics requires matching the right person with the right principles.

Conservatism conserves the timeless truths that need to be conserved. Eternal truths don’t suddenly become untrue, even if a depraved people insist otherwise. The key is finding the right conservative politicians, especially at the presidential level, to attractively communicate that conservatism.

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