Never Trust a Reagan Republican

“Conservatives love to drop my father’s name and try to find candidates that act and think like he did.” ~ Michael Reagan

Conservative Republicans who want to sucker libertarians to get their votes often describe themselves as libertarian-leaning. Conservative Republicans who want to sucker other conservatives to get their votes often refer to themselves as constitutional conservatives. But conservative Republicans who want to sucker their fellow Republicans to get their votes often call themselves Reagan Republicans.

According to many Republicans, Reagan was the greatest president in their lifetime. Others consider him to be the greatest president in the twentieth century. Some count him the greatest president in U.S. history.

Invoking the name of Reagan covers a multitude of sins. He is not just a Republican icon; he is a Republican god. Republicans revere Reagan like they revere the Constitution. Some libertarians think highly of Reagan as well. After all, Reagan was once photographed reading The Freeman.Why would any conservative Republican refer to himself as a Reagan Republican? And why especially would a conservative Republican who talks about his belief in the Constitution, limited government, and free enterprise and rails against government spending, debt, and deficits refer to himself as a Reagan Republican?

Why don’t conservative Republicans call themselves Coolidge Republicans or Harding Republicans or Harrison Republicans or Arthur Republicans or Hayes Republicans? They were the least bad Republican presidents. And no, I didn’t forget to mention Dwight Eisenhower or Herbert Hoover or Teddy Roosevelt. And I certainly didn’t forget to mention Abraham Lincoln. The best Republican president was, of course, James Garfield—he died from an assassin’s bullet during his first year in office before he could do any serious damage to the country.

The problem with Reagan Republicans is that they are still Republicans—something they ought to be ashamed of.

For the complete and utter evisceration of Reagan, see Murray Rothbard’s “The Reagan Phenomenon,” “Ronald Reagan, Warmonger,” and “Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy.”