Ah you children, you worship a myth Reagan created in the 1990s by the Conservative Media Establishment.
The Reagan myth runs something like this. Reagan, after beating both Carter and the GOP Political Establishment rode into DC, took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves , and proceeded to beat the snot out of everyone in DC.
The real Reagan was a much more human, flawed, man. Reagan went to DC and proceed to cut a whole lot of deals with a Democrat Congress to move his political ball down the field. He surrendered on any number of political issues that resulted in the “Conservative Media Establishment” writing in 1986 about how Reagan had “betrayed the Conservative Movement.”
Reagan has some advice for your sort of Political purists.
By Ronald Reagan in his autobiography An American Life
“When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it. “Compromise” was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything. I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: “I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.” If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.”
No.
Thanks, Johnnie.
Excellent post.
And, they still haven’t.
I used to call it being raised on the “Reagan Highlight Reel”.
That’s not to take anything away from him at all. But people need to understand that it wasn’t all great victories, beautiful speeches, and 100% adulation.
He had to give to get many times, and he didn’t get everything he would have wanted. And yes he made mistakes, but never sold himself as perfection.
Regan was great because he achieved what he could and made those deals so that what he got felt like a win for all those involved. That’s why 1984 was as big a win as it was.