Ah, the Gipper! He reversed (or at least significantly slowed) the growth of the post-New Deal/Great Society Leviathan federal government in the US, right? I mean, he sure did take a rhetorical ax to the government….
But what if it was all just talk? What if conservatives love and liberals hate Ronald Wilson Reagan, but for things that aren’t even real?
(BTW, I apologize for the intermittent background noise. A cable was rubbing on the mic and I didn’t notice it until after I’d recorded the whole episode!)
Join Prof CJ as he discusses:
- The Mythical Story of Reagan-as-Gov’t-Cutter
- Supply Side theory & practice
- Candidate Reagan’s platform c. 1980
- Reagan’s record on such things as deregulation, taxes, spending, borrowing, money, and federal programs & departments
- Some excerpts from David Stockman’s excellent book, The Triumph of Politics, on how & why the Reagan Revolution didn’t really happen
- The Prof’s thoughts on how figures like Reagan (and Obama) seem to emerge whenever there’s a real possibility of the Anti-Establishment Left & Anti-Establishment Right getting together (such as in the late-70s & circa the end of George W. Bush’s presidency), and successfully 1) re-divide the Left and Right sides of Anti-Establishmentarianism and 2) co-opt & defuse the energy and anger of their respective side (as Reagan did for much of the Anti-Est. Right of the 1980s and Obama did for much of the Anti-Est. Left in recent years.)
Prof CJ’s Picks (buy from Amazon via these links to help support the show)
External links:
- Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural
- The essay, “Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy” by Murray Rothbard
- The essay, “The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan” by Sheldon Richman
- The US debt clock
- US Gov’t Spending as a % of GDP by year