Julian Zelizer: Reagan the Politician
[Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University, is the author of “Jimmy Carter” and the editor of “The Presidency of George W. Bush.”]
Politics is a dirty word in Washington. Movement activists, on the left and the right, hate when their party negotiates with the opposition and compromises on key issues.
Over the past year, tea party Republicans leveled this charge against the GOP. They complained that Republicans had become too comfortable with the wheeling and dealing so characteristic of Capitol Hill. They promise not to do the same.
But movements need leaders who are good at politics if they want to succeed. Nobody understood this more than Ronald Reagan.
While there are extensive discussions about Reagan as an actor, as a movement leader and as a diplomat, fewer observers recall that much of his career revolved around working as a politician. Indeed, this might be one of his most important contributions to the history of conservatism: Reagan fused the ideas and values of modern conservatism with the practicalities of governance.
Reagan began his career as an elected official by serving as California governor. He defeated Gov. Pat Brown in 1966 with a campaign that targeted Great Society liberalism and promised to shift the state’s politics to the right.
During his governorship, however, Reagan didn’t always practice what he preached. The fact is that he didn’t have much choice. He squared off against a Democratic legislature, where Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh proved a formidable opponent....
Read entire article at Politico
Politics is a dirty word in Washington. Movement activists, on the left and the right, hate when their party negotiates with the opposition and compromises on key issues.
Over the past year, tea party Republicans leveled this charge against the GOP. They complained that Republicans had become too comfortable with the wheeling and dealing so characteristic of Capitol Hill. They promise not to do the same.
But movements need leaders who are good at politics if they want to succeed. Nobody understood this more than Ronald Reagan.
While there are extensive discussions about Reagan as an actor, as a movement leader and as a diplomat, fewer observers recall that much of his career revolved around working as a politician. Indeed, this might be one of his most important contributions to the history of conservatism: Reagan fused the ideas and values of modern conservatism with the practicalities of governance.
Reagan began his career as an elected official by serving as California governor. He defeated Gov. Pat Brown in 1966 with a campaign that targeted Great Society liberalism and promised to shift the state’s politics to the right.
During his governorship, however, Reagan didn’t always practice what he preached. The fact is that he didn’t have much choice. He squared off against a Democratic legislature, where Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh proved a formidable opponent....