Ronald Reagan's Enduring Principles: How They Can Promote Political Success Today

After all these years the polls still show that Ronald Reagan is the most popular conservative political and governmental official in the U.S. Reagan rose with modern Bill Buckley "fusionist" conservatism, reading the literature and supporting the politics, rising to governor and two successful terms as president inspired by those ideals. The former President offers solutions for today’s real problems, especially stagflation, for which he took incredible heat for staying the course. He was unique in taming the administrative state, especially by firing law-breaking air traffic controller bureaucrats, cutting domestic government employment by 100,000, and over time reducing their hallowed retirement benefits from 44 to 20 percent of payroll (with some help from the author), and reduced nondefense discretionary spending overall by 9.5 percent. He made weapons deals with the Soviet enemy against his own supporters’ preferences, and by one analysis committed fewer overseas troops than the overwhelming number of presidents before and since. He was probably the best-read consumer of serious books than any recent president and his sophisticated promotion of the fusionist principle of utilizing libertarian means to achieve traditionalist ends provides the enduring principles required to promote political success today.