Matthew Dallek: The Divisive Underbelly of Reagan's Sunny Optimism
[Matthew Dallek, a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), teaches history and politics at the University of California Washington Center]
...[T]he absence of doubt in so much of Reagan's repertoire -- the Manichaean streak he routinely displayed -- applied to other, darker aspects of his rhetorical legacy. Perhaps Reagan "delivered America from fear and loathing," as historian John Patrick Diggins once said. But it's also fair to point out that he sometimes adopted a raw, vitriolic approach to politics, and his capacity for tapping people's anger should be remembered as an aspect of his legacy, too.
He skillfully channeled the surging 1960s-to-1980s-era national antipathy toward liberal reformers, the welfare state and student protesters, among other demons. He had an uncanny, almost instinctual feel for the electorate's mood. Throughout his three decades in political life, he repeatedly seized on people's hopes, but also found their anger and played on their fears. In Reagan's lexicon, optimism competed with anger.
For instance, while he spoke of unleashing Californians' individual initiative during his first 1966 gubernatorial campaign, he also tapped voters' fears that the social order was beginning to crumble and that liberals and their allies had caused the crumbling. He campaigned by charging that "a small minority of beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates" had "brought shame" to the University of California at Berkeley, an elite, publicly funded school in the state's higher education system. Describing California's city streets as "jungle paths after dark" and college campuses as hotbeds of sexual licentiousness and immoral behavior, Reagan rode to power by depicting California as an overly liberal, permissive society. He vowed to crack down as one of his first priorities in the governor's mansion. Appropriately, he had a sign in his capitol office that said: "Obey the rules, or get out."...
Read entire article at Salon
...[T]he absence of doubt in so much of Reagan's repertoire -- the Manichaean streak he routinely displayed -- applied to other, darker aspects of his rhetorical legacy. Perhaps Reagan "delivered America from fear and loathing," as historian John Patrick Diggins once said. But it's also fair to point out that he sometimes adopted a raw, vitriolic approach to politics, and his capacity for tapping people's anger should be remembered as an aspect of his legacy, too.
He skillfully channeled the surging 1960s-to-1980s-era national antipathy toward liberal reformers, the welfare state and student protesters, among other demons. He had an uncanny, almost instinctual feel for the electorate's mood. Throughout his three decades in political life, he repeatedly seized on people's hopes, but also found their anger and played on their fears. In Reagan's lexicon, optimism competed with anger.
For instance, while he spoke of unleashing Californians' individual initiative during his first 1966 gubernatorial campaign, he also tapped voters' fears that the social order was beginning to crumble and that liberals and their allies had caused the crumbling. He campaigned by charging that "a small minority of beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates" had "brought shame" to the University of California at Berkeley, an elite, publicly funded school in the state's higher education system. Describing California's city streets as "jungle paths after dark" and college campuses as hotbeds of sexual licentiousness and immoral behavior, Reagan rode to power by depicting California as an overly liberal, permissive society. He vowed to crack down as one of his first priorities in the governor's mansion. Appropriately, he had a sign in his capitol office that said: "Obey the rules, or get out."...