[ansel12]

I have heard this spin before and it makes Reagan look like an unprincipled political prostitute who only says what he does to attrack votes.

When you guys keep posting the same little quote from a libertarian interview in which he then proceeds to explain why he is not a libertarian and is a social conservative and strong on national defense from 35 years ago to tell a lie, then of course you have heard reactions to it.

[bamahead]

Nobody’s telling a lie. But for those who trounce around FR ignorantly proclaiming that the small ‘l’ needs to be purged from the conservative movement...of course it’s always the first salvo. Because it’s a FACT that Reagan saw the alliance as valuable, even if he didn’t agree with everything it promoted. It provides a moment of clarity to those ignorant of that fact.

[rob777]

"... he then proceeds to explain why he is not a libertarian and is a social conservative and strong on national defense... "


First of all, he never rejected the label libertarian. The interview was conducted in the first place because he had been using the terms libertarian and libertarian-conservative to describe his political philosophy. He did point out where he disagreed on specific issues with some of the positions taken by some within the official Libertarian movement. When asked about the LP, he said that they should support the remnant within the GOP that shares their philosophy of limited government and individual liberty. He also pointed to some of the Classical Liberal thinkers he read that he considers to be a link between conservatism and libertarianism. Again, his disagreement was not with libertarianism as a political philosophy, which he clearly embraced, it was with positions on specific issues that some libertarians took. http://reason.com/archives/1975/07/01/inside-ronald-reagan