The Intelligence Pool

Is the Republican Party History?

by Robert Roy Pool

One of proudest moments in my father’s life was his participation in the first inauguration of Ronald Reagan in Washington.  My father had been active in Republican politics for almost two decades by then, and Reagan’s victory felt like a vindication of everything my dad felt the Republicans had been fighting for since 1960.

My dad owned six different small businesses at different times in his life, four of which he started himself.  All these he built up successfully and sold off except for the two my sisters and I inherited when he passed away.  All of these businesses are still operating today, including the two we inherited.  My dad became modestly wealthy, but his success as a businessman should be measured mostly by the businesses he started and preserved and the jobs he created.

Socialism, my dad believed, undermined men’s incentives to work hard and be productive.  Free enterprise provided more opportunities for more people. He was absolutely determined that socialism should never prevail in the United States. It was because of his experiences and his beliefs that he was drawn to the Republican Party.

The Triumph of 1980

The Republican Coalition in 1980 consisted of three different but allied groups: the “free-market Republicans,” like my father, the “foreign policy hawks,” and the “social conservatives.”  My father had little in common with the foreign policy hawks or the social conservatives, but he had nothing against them, either, as long as they minded their own business and didn’t interfere with his.  All three groups could coexist peacefully in the Republican Party of Reagan’s era.

Reagan appealed to each of these three primary Republican groups in almost equal measure.  The Gipper had a charming, humorous personality – unlike, say, Barry Goldwater, another conservative icon, who tended to be snappy and defensive at times – and Reagan managed to convey to each of these three large groups that their concerns were close to his heart.

For this reason – because he believed Ronald Reagan actually understood the concerns of entrepreneurs like himself, concerns like low taxes, limited regulation, and small government – my father worked for Reagan’s election.  My dad was willing to spend his time and money to attend Reagan’s convention in Detroit and his inauguration in Washington.  Both he and my very-frugal mother regarded these events as once-in-a-lifetime experiences, moments when the ideas they believed in were affirmed by millions on the largest national stage.  That made it worth paying the outrageous hotel bills in Detroit and Washington – but only for a few nights!

I recently watched Reagan’s 1980 acceptance speech on You Tube, and I was struck by how little of what he said then would be controversial today.  He began by denouncing discrimination against women and promising legislation to ensure their equal treatment.  (Wait a minute – I thought Reagan was a conservative.  Oh yeah, he appointed the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor.  Guess he wasn’t that conservative.) 

Reagan reached out in his speech to every American who valued family and freedom – which is everyone, of course – and he disparaged the “mediocre leadership” of Jimmy Carter for lurching from one crisis to the next and overseeing the worst inflation in American history – an indictment of Carter history has pretty much vindicated.

It was pretty tame stuff for a Presidential campaign.  Almost all of Reagan’s arguments touched on economics and the government’s competence, or lack thereof.  “It is time our government should go on a diet,” he said, and vowed to impose a Federal hiring freeze.  “We will also work to reduce the cost of government as a percentage of our gross national product,” he said, in a remark that seems utterly bland now.