Conservatives are addicted to Ronald Reagan more than they are in love with tax cuts. More than any other issue – and there are several – holding the modern conservative movement back, I think their never-ending obsession with President Reagan is at the top of the list.

First, a caveat. It isn’t as if the left doesn’t have its presidential heroes. Without a doubt figures like FDR, Kennedy, and LBJ (on domestic policy at least) will always hold a special place in the left’s heart. The same can be said for President Clinton, as well as non-Democrats like Teddy Roosevelt (a favorite of mine). But, and this is key, as much as the New Deal shaped our modern world, there is little of the cult of personality around FDR that there is with Reagan.

The right has allowed the right-wing hagiographic version of Reagan (the one who didn’t raise taxes, like the real Reagan) to dictate so much of what they are as a party. On domestic policy and foreign policy, the right is regularly pausing to ask “what would Reagan do” rather than come up with a modern, conservative, solution.

I’m a liberal, I don’t want conservatism to succeed, but despite that I do want a coherent conservative alternative to be offered if only to keep our liberals on their toes. Plus, history shows us that overall that’s better for the party.

But the right adheres to a brand of Reaganism that The Great Communicator himself could never live up to. Reagan’s actual policies and occasional compromises would put him quite a distance from the Tea Party that supposedly reveres him.

And let’s be blunt: Ronald Reagan hasn’t been the head of the Republican Party for 23 years now. Children born on the last day of his presidency are finished with college.

There isn’t anything wrong with parties and movements having national heroes and examples of leadership, but it becomes too much when you allow them (or fantasy versions of them) to rule your thinking so much it becomes a hindrance, rather than a celebration.

Subscribe

Oliver Willis's feed

Enter email below:

So that was pretty sweet. My guy – our guy – won, in decisive fashion. A Democrat has been elected to two terms in the White House. Barack Obama joins Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton in the hall of electoral success. And I think history will record his achievements at the upper end of the spectrum as far as consequence – just based on what he’s done so far.

I have to indulge my already large ego here in pointing out I really got some things right. As far back as November of 2011 I predicted that President Obama would win by 2-3%. That appears to be the margin of victory right now. For once, again based on current results, I actually called Florida right.

As many liberals lost their minds after Obama’s poor performance in the first debate, I had a strange sort of serenity in simply trusting Obama to triumph. In his entire national career and my time as a supporter, the only time I’ve seriously doubted him was after he lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton. Since then I realized that he and his braintrust really know what they’re doing. We saw that in 2008 and in almost epic form during this year’s election.

The single biggest thing I’ve learned about politics in America, encompassing the 2004 contest and up until last night’s triumph is this: Being “against” is simply not enough. It. Will. Not. Work. Progressive hatred of George W. Bush was not able to drag John Kerry across the finish line. Conservative hatred of Barack Obama equally failed to pull Mitt Romney into the oval office. Both parties need to learn, via the primary process, that simply picking a candidate based on your perception of what America wants is ultimate folly.

“Electability” is really a myth. A candidate does not gain electability until he has a legion of passionate supporters behind him or her. Electorally successful two-term presidents like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and now Barack Obama prove this maxim. You have to be FOR someone for America to get the right signal to vote for them. Period.

On the left, we have accomplished something truly great. Our standard-bearer has been reaffirmed from coast to coast while the right has suffered enough of a defeat to – at least on the surface for now – start seriously questioning their place in the American political conversation. Obama’s winning coalition – a coalition that really looks like America in 2012 – strikes at the very heart and soul of foundational American conservatism.

America is moving forward, and past them.

Subscribe

Oliver Willis's feed

Enter email below:

This is great. For the 57th time over 224 years, the people of the United States get to choose who will lead them. We decide. We decide. For all the money sloshing around the election between the parties, outside groups, and beyond, the outcome is all contingent on aggregate of individuals making a choice.

Not all of us initially had that power, even though the founding documents appeared to say so. But we fought, both ideologically and physically, until the right to vote extended to all adults. It’s still a fight sometimes, but for better or worse – and even in my relatively short lifetime I’ve seen both – we decide.

As Americans we take this for granted. It is just assumed as a fait accompli that free and fair elections are a thing. But as recent history shows us in multiple countries, this is not a given.

I fully concede that I have a Pollyanna-ish view of the great American experiment, but I don’t apologize for it. Maybe its because I’m a first generation American that I don’t have a whole lot of cynicism about this, but I fully appreciate the freedom that we have.

This will be my fifth presidential election that I have voted in. It will be the third and last time I have voted for Barack Obama for President (Democratic Primary, Two General Elections) and I will be proud to do so.

And I’ll be proud of you for casting your vote – honestly, even the ones I disagree with because you’re a part of the great national conversation and fight.

From Sea To Shining Sea.

Subscribe

Oliver Willis's feed

Enter email below:

Every four years the residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia get together to decide the fate of the world. We call it “voting for President” locally, but make no mistake – our minute in the polling booth resonates across every country on the face of the earth.

America is the sole superpower in the world. We have more influence over world events than anyone else. We have the most powerful military, and the strongest economy. When we make a decision like this it ripples around the world and back.

Don’t take this lightly. Not only does the future depend on your vote, but you owe the past a debt as well. America didn’t get here by accident. Sure, an ocean on each side helps, but the democratic selection of leaders and the peaceful transition of power are key to our continued strength. We matter to an extraordinary level.

There isn’t any doubt about who I support in this election. Like any human being, President Obama is flawed, but I truly believe he is a good man who is doing what is right for the country. We have emerged from the nearly decades-long darkness of the Bush administration, a collapse of leadership that harmed America’s economy and national security. Our most dangerous enemies are either dead or on their way there while the economy is recovering and the Bush recession is in retreat.

Obama’s administration has appointed people who believe in science, believe in data, and largely make key decisions that reflect those values. We don’t have polluters pushing pollution under the moniker of “healthy skies.” We don’t have an attorney general who won’t fight for civil rights. We have a vice president who believes in fighting for the working class, not one who thinks American soldiers aren’t worthy of honest decision making.

The Obama administration believes in the fundamentally American value of progress, while Romney and the people he would appoint believe in holding on to some of the worst ideas of the past in service of an increasingly narrow spectrum of America.

Progress made America great.

It’s why we chose democracy over monarchy, equality over injustice, and time and again – hope and courage over fear itself.

The decision each voting American makes will affect the lives of every man, woman, and child on planet earth. Every vote matters.

Voting is a civic duty, people died to give you that right. We’re Americans, and that’s pretty awesome.

Subscribe

Oliver Willis's feed

Enter email below:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s endorsement of President Obama today won’t change anything and it won’t be the linchpin in the fait accompli victory Obama will have in New York, but its worth noting because Mayor Bloomberg — along with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz — is one of those elite centrists whose silly approach to politics often hurts the causes they believe in.

A lot of these guys — including people like Tom Friedman and Matt Bai at the New York Times — often rail about “both” parties as getting in the way of accomplishing the *very serious* things they think we need to be tackling. They see Republican denial of climate change and equate it to, well I’m not quite sure. There’s one party in America that takes climate change seriously, believes we need to invest in science-based education and understands that there are large intractable problems in society that can’t be left to the magical free hand of the market to solve. Like disaster rescue, for instance.

But our elite class hates this thing called “partisanship” and they think that acknowledging that one party — let’s say the Democratic party — actually gives two figs about solutions to the issues they care about will mean that they’re not being bipartisan and God knows what a drag that is at TED/Davos/The Aspen Institute.

So instead they practice this idiotic “a pox on both houses” strategy. You’ve seen it in cases like No Labels and various other efforts aimed at appealing to a centrism that doesn’t actually exist in America in the manner they’re appealing to.

The Democrats are, for better or worse, a center-left party. The people they nominate to the vast majority of their offices, from President Obama down to members of the House, are simply not as much to the left as the Republican party is to the right. Some of us think that needs changing over the long-term, but it also means that if you want centrist solutions to things its the only one of the two parties that is likely to return your phone calls.

But our centrist elites are often too busy in their ivory towers to pay attention to what’s really going on.