Reagan the populist hero
by digby
Rick Santorum is trying to say that Ronald Reagan was some sort of populist. Hahahaha:
The former Pennsylvania senator, who is exploring a 2016 presidential bid, quoted President Ronald Reagan to make the case for a more robust government that can provide assistance to lower and middle income Americans. He argued that the Republican would “be appalled today” by GOP lawmakers who tailor their policy prescriptions to conservative orthodoxy rather than the economic problems at hand.
“One of [Reagan’s] famous quotes was, ‘government isn’t the answer, government is the problem.’ But here is what he said in the beginning of that quote, ‘in this current crisis,’” Santorum declared. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a different crisis in America, we have a crisis of people in the middle of America feeling disconnected to this country and the opportunity they can provide.”
Here’s the relevant portion of Reagan’s speech:
These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we’re not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
That’s a lovely sentiment isn’t it? You can see why ordinary people didn’t understand what he was really saying, can’t you? he couched his trickle down with warm bromides about the average Joe but nonetheless it’s clear to anyone who listens closely that he;s average Joe and Jane’s problems are all caused by high taxes and high government spending.
He went on to talk about how this all about opportunity for cabbies and factory workers and waitresses etc. and talked about American being the land of opportunity and greatness. And then he got specific:
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work–work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we’re too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.
So yeah sure, he was responding to “the present crisis” but he also made it clear that he intended to cut taxes and cut spending by the federal government as a general principle.
Santorum can pretend that Reagan was some kind of populist who wanted to help the poor but it just isn’t not true. Yes, he spoke glowingly and effectively about our American Dream, but it was all about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. In fact, Santorum’s newfound support for the minimum wage would have been vociferously opposed by St. Ronnie:
Established during the New Deal, the minimum wage was once viewed by Democrats and Republicans alike as an instrument of economic justice — an effort to “end starvation wages,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself put it. Now, though, it is seen by much of official Washington as an economic impediment, an undue burden on a marketplace better left unfettered. Where the onus was once on the business owner to pay “a decent wage,” it’s now more on the worker to demonstrate that he or she deserves one.
This sea change began when Ronald Reagan swept into office. From 1950 through 1982, the minimum wage was allowed to fall below 45% of the average hourly wage in the U.S. in only four separate years. Since 1982, the minimum wage has never reached 45%, and it currently stands at 36%, of that benchmark. Even using a conservative measure of inflation, the minimum wage throughout the ’60s and ’70s was consistently worth more than $5.50 an hour — and frequently more than $6 — in today’s terms. After 1980, its value plummeted, sinking to less than $4.50 as President Reagan left office.
That’s just one of many examples of Reagan “curbing the influence of the federal government” to help actual workers. He didn’t manage to cut the growth of government however. It turned out that he did believe in one kind of government largesse — military spending. That’s always good.
Reagan was a very gifted politician who effectively appropriated the ethos of the left whenever it suited him to provide cover for his right wing philosophy. The paeans to “renewal” and “strength” and faith in American greatness were all very inspiring concepts and he used them liberally. But they were ultimately a vacuous misdirection in his hands. He had the gift of appearing to be whoever you wanted him to be — an actor’s talent. A talent poor Rick Santorum is sorely lacking.
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