[BuffaloJack]

Is this a trick question?
It was Ronald Reagan.

[dmz]

Please define REAL Conservative.

[EGPWS]

I'd have to look at who Nancy Pelosi and Debra Shultz hate the most.

[babble-on]

Hoover, or perhaps Ike

[353FMG]

George Washington.

[EGPWS]

He cut the top tax rate from 56% to 25%.

What was JFK's top rate tax reduction record?

[Nifster]

I’ll take Reagan any day. Your Coolidge response is silly

[cripplecreek]

Reagan who saw Coolidge as a role model.

[smoothsailing]

The Great Communicator

[Wallace T.]

Reagan essentially sacrificed his conservative domestic agenda for the sake of defeating international Communism, an understandable and defensible tradeoff. Additionally, Reagan lacked a Republican Congress, though he did have a marginally Republican Senate for several years.

From a domestic policy standpoint, Coolidge would be the last conservative President. Herbert Hoover's anti-Depression programs, such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, were precursors of FDR's New Deal. Eisenhower had conservative instincts, but decided against abolishing the New Deal and Fair Deal programs of his predecessors. Nixon, Ford, and the Bushes were at best pragmatists who did nothing to abolish the governmental expansions of their Democrat predecessors and expanded certain Federal social welfare programs.

Prior to Coolidge, Harding, McKinley, and Cleveland would qualify as Constitutional conservatives. Not so for Theodore Roosevelt or Wilson. Like Eisenhower, Taft had conservative instincts, but it was partially under his Administration we were saddled with the income tax, the Federal Reserve, and the elimination of legislatures choosing U.S. Senators.

[Argus]

William Howard Taft.

[Paine in the Neck]

I’ll go with Coolidge with an honorable mention to RR.

[fishtank]

Anyone who says “Bush” here DESERVES to be zotted.

[Fiji Hill]

It depends on what you mean by “real conservative.” Calvin Coolidge was the last president who saw himself as the nation’s first magistrate with limited powers, as defined by the Constitution. All of his successors were, essentially, elected kings.

[the anti-liberal]

My step-father’s grandfather! Yay!

[Hoodat]

Grover Cleveland

[lonestar67]

You are correct.

I love Reagan but despise the lack of realism about his political record.

Conservatives for some mysterious reason do not stab him in the back with flagrant non conservative actions as the do with W.

Lebanon. Ridiculous
O Connor. Catastrophic.
Deficits. Massive but largely not his fault but congresses.
Amnesty. Flagrant massive capitulation surpassing w by far but completely ignored.

We ignore these mistakes but celebrates the conservative tone of Reagan.

[Emperor Palpatine]

William McKinley

[backwoods-engineer]

Reagan. And then before that, Silent Cal Coolidge, whom Reagan admired.