...Today, 25 years after Reagan assumed office, it is hard to exaggerate his influence on American politics in general and on the conservative movement in particular. Many of the once-controversial elements of his philosophy—tax cuts to spur economic growth, a build-up of American defense forces, confronting totalitarianism abroad, an end to welfare dependency at home—are today embraced by most (but not all) Republicans and even some Democrats, and the conservative movement he headed has effectively become the established core of the GOP. This transformation has been one of the great ideological triumphs in American politics...
All very true...except that tax cuts spurred bubbles that destroyed more wealth than they created, the American defense forces show no signs of being able to keep track of their own nuclear weaponry nor are they scaled to an appropriate size for the opponent they face: essentially an infinite black-hole of expenditure, and although welfare dependency may have been ended, the system has encouraged a dependency of the business class on the active conspiracy of government agencies to wink at their less ethical schemes.
That is your Reagan Republicanism:
Bear Sterns executives in $1,000 suits scamming their investors and being arrested;
American defense spending in its war on terror approaching that of the amounts spent during the Cold War when it confronted the USSR, a real nation state with an army;
An active schism in the body politic between haves and have-nots, between the old and the young, between racial groups...no sense of community and common reciprocal need.
When I think Reagan, I think "Death Valley Days".
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