Ronald Reagan's Political Legacy



Jon Margolis, Chicago Tribune



. . .
For a revolutionary, Reagan was a pragmatist who always governed more
moderately than he orated. He called the Soviet Union an “evil empire”
but adhered to the arms control treaties it signed and negotiated
another. He proclaimed that “government is the problem” but did not
reduce its size or impact. He pushed through the biggest tax cut in
history in 1981, then quietly allowed his aides to negotiate a large
tax increase in 1982. He assailed abortion but did nothing to alter its
legal status. He signed an executive order to inventory public land for
possible sale to private interests but signed several wilderness bills.



His
political heirs, led by Bush, are more consistent ideologues. Bush, who
lost the popular vote in 2000, lacks the electoral mandate Reagan got
with his 51 percent majority in 1980. But armed with the congressional
dominance Reagan never had, Bush has pursued his conservative agenda
with more single-minded fervor than Reagan did in his first term, or
even after he won 59 percent of the vote and 49 states in 1984.



Bush has
abrogated international treaties, launched a war opposed by important
U.S. allies, started construction of the anti-missile system Reagan
envisioned, cut taxes more often than Reagan and used his executive
authority to weaken protections for workers and the environment. He has
even proposed measures Reagan never dared espouse as president, such as
semi-privatization of Medicare and Social Security.



“There
is no evidence that Americans want to undo the New Deal,” Republican
Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa said in 1982, when unemployment was above 10
percent, Reagan's approval rating was low and Republicans were running
scared. There is scant evidence that most Americans today might want to
undo the New Deal, but many of its central programs are being altered.
. . .

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