Resurrect Reagan
In the wake of Trump, US conservatives must regain the moral high ground
Daniel Johnson urges US conservatives to revive the message of freedom
‘‘ Yesterday, December 7, 1941 —a date that will live in infamy…” So begins Franklin Roosevelt’s speech after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 80 years ago. Twenty years ago came a second such date: the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001. This year, a third was added: 6 January, 2021.The storming of the Capitol differs from the other two, in that the blow was dealt, not by foreign foes, but by enemies within.
Yet the tragic fact that those who invaded the temple of democracy believed that they had rallied to “save America” made it all the more of an assault on America itself. True: thousands died at Pearl Harbor and on 9/11; only five died on Capitol Hill. But the magnitude of the crime is not measured solely by its cost in human life. That day, democracy in America was trampled underfoot. This, too, was a date that will live in infamy — all the more so as the man who bore primary responsibility was the President of the United States himself.
When, two weeks after the sack of the Capitol, Donald Trump finally made his departure from the White House, it wasn’t merely his customary gracelessness that has left Americans of a conservative disposition with long faces and sleepless nights. The defeat of the Republicans last November looks like much more than a reverse of 2016. They were trounced, leaving Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress as well as the presidency. Republicans have a mountain to climb to make a comeback in 2024.
Still, they have done it before. In 1976, Gerald Ford was swept out of office after one abbreviated term by dismay over Vietnam, Watergate and the oil crisis. The Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter, a liberal populist, looked set for eight years, while the Republicans licked their wounds and wondered what would come next.
What came next was Ronald Reagan. At the time he was denounced as an extremist in terms hardly less extravagant than those now calling for Trump to be strung up by his elongated necktie — and yet four years later Reagan entered the White House. That is a transformation devoutly to be wished in these days of dejection and despair on the American centre-right. John Bolton — one of the few survivors of the Trump Administration to emerge from the wreckage with his reputation intact — has argued eloquently that the Republicans could do a great deal worse than to return to Reagan’s sunny message of optimism and sound conservative principles, outlined in his farewell address from the Oval Office in 1989.
By then dismissed by commentators as well into his anecdotage, the president defiantly told one of his stories: “A small story about a big ship, and a refugee and a sailor. It was back in the early Eighties, at the height of the boat people, and the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat — and crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship, and safety. As the refugees
Somehow, American conservatives
have to regain that moral high ground, defending and articulating the case for liberty under the law. After Reagan came George H.R. Bush: an oldschool liberal Republican who presided over victory in the Cold War and the first Gulf War but was undone by the peace. A recession, a broken promise on taxes and the voters’ desire for a change catapulted Bill Clinton into office.
The Clinton years witnessed the first populist insurgencies against the Republican establishment. In 1993, the conservative Californian politician Celeste Greig popularised the slogan “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) in her campaign against Richard Riordan, the centrist mayor of Los Angeles. It was weaponised by Newt Gingrich, maverick Speaker of the House of Representatives who led the Republicans to victory in the 1994 midterm elections. For the first time in four decades, the Grand Old Party (GOP) got its act together and swept the board, gaining majorities in both House and Senate.
But this “Republican Revolution” proved to be short-lived. The hopes of “movement conservatives” foundered in part on the resilience of the moderate wing of the party, which was able