News of the Week: Rethinking Reagan

Recapping the interesting and noteworthy events of the past week. In this edition, we take a retrospective look at conservative icon Ronald Reagan.

It’s been said that the “good ‘ole days” require two things: a bad memory and a good imagination. Conservatives tend to have memory loss when it comes to the Reagan years. Today (February 6, 2011) would be Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, and devotees are spending plenty of time revering his legacy. His rhetoric is espoused by just about every serious conservative, but forgotten (or not known) is the reality of his accomplishments. The simple truth about the 1980s was that under Reagan, the federal government actually grew!

I write this with conflicted feelings. What I knew of Reagan, I liked. Unfortunately, what I knew of Reagan was what he said, not what he actually did during his governorship and Presidency. I’m just now learning that my impression of Reagan was based solely on what he said. I was fairly ignorant of the facts.

So if you believed (or still do) that Reagan was a champion of liberty, or if you are just beginning to learn the truth, join me in learning more about the man and his words versus the man and his actions.

Here are a few places to get started:

• “Ronald Reagan, an Autopsy,” by Murray Rothbard, originally published in 1989
• “Reagan: No Revolution,” by Jacob Huebert (excerpted from Libertarianism Today)
• “The Reagan Phenomenon,” by Murray Rothbard