June 21, 2007
GOP: Ron Reagan = Bear Bryant??
It can’t just be the fact that they share an elephant as their mascot. Is Ronald Reagan emerging as comparable figure in conservative politics to Bear Bryant in Alabama football?
It hasn’t hurt Republicans the way the Bryant’s legacy has impaired Tide football, particularly its coaching struggles in the 1990s and the 2000s, but could it? Could Reagan’s legacy ultimately cast a shadow so long and so deep that it prevents innovators and new ideas from emerging? Will it be a bad thing in the long run if the GOP becomes stuck in the 1980s philosophically?
Maybe it won’t. I think Reagan was a good president, and I would have voted for him twice if I had been of voting age. (I got my first chance to vote for a president in 1992.) But is slapping the “Next Reagan” label on every promising candidate doing more harm than good?
Maybe it isn’t Bear Bryant but Michael Jordan that I should be asking about. I have no love for the NBA, but the second coming of his highness via the “Next Jordan” has been rumored for nearly 20 years now. Has it helped Kobe Bryant or Lebron James to saddle them with this label?
![Rob Robinson](http://thinktrain.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/Rob.jpg")
justin said,
June 21, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
I don’t think anyone is slapping the “next reagan” sticker on Ron Paul. My point is simply that he holds more of reagan’s original positions than any of the neocons that he shares the stage with. Reagan wanted to abolish the department of education, and these guys come up with no child left behind. Reagan withdrew from combat in the middle east because its effed up over there, and these guys somehow think that by invading a sovereign nation, they can make that crazy geopolitical and religious situation calm down.
Ron Paul isn’t Reagan. He isn’t the great communicator. But he’s intelligent, and principled and he would govern by philosophy rather than by looking at polls and hand picking issues that he thinks will win him votes.
Rob Robinson said,
June 21, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
Thanks, Justin. I know very little about Paul, to be honest. I know just enough to expect that he’d probably be the Republican I’d agree with most out of the pack of candidates seeking the GOP nomination.
It intrigues me more how quick some conservatives are to apply the “Reagan” label on emerging candidates. It struck me as funny that it is happening yet again, and it made me wonder if Reagan’s pedestal is getting a bit too high.
Volunteer Voters » The Reagan Obsession said,
June 21, 2007 @ 6:56 pm
[...] Rob Robinson is concerned that Ronald Reagan might become an overshadowing and growth-stunting figure the way Bear Bryant has been for the University of Alabama: It hasn’t hurt Republicans the way the Bryant’s legacy has impaired Tide football, particularly its coaching struggles in the 1990s and the 2000s, but could it? Could Reagan’s legacy ultimately cast a shadow so long and so deep that it prevents innovators and new ideas from emerging? Will it be a bad thing in the long run if the GOP becomes stuck in the 1980s philosophically? [...]
justin said,
June 22, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Oh, I can definitely understand that line of thinking. Shoot, some of the debate questions have been, essentially, “how much like Reagan are you?”
Its funny because literally none of them are like Reagan. While Reagan did some neocon type things, he was essentially a Barry Goldwater conservative. He at least tried to cut spending, tried to get rid of vast federal agencies, etc. No one in the party today would even try to do that. Instead of cutting federal spending, they just preach tax cuts and deficeit spending. Sure that puts more money in our hands, but the deficeit and our debt to other nations (which happens because we are no longer on the gold standard) causes inflation which hurts the poor the most.
You really should check out Ron Paul though.