January 14, 2009
Reflections on the Age of Reagan
Sean Wilentz
Professor of History, Princeton
Minutes of the 15th Meeting of the 67th Year
President Hansen called the 15th meeting of the 67th season of the Old Guard of Princeton to order at 10:15 AM and led the invocation.
Jim Livingston read the minutes of the preceding meeting of the Old Guard at which James Kelly, Managing Editor of Time, Inc. and now visiting Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, spoke on the topic, “Obama and the Press: When Will the Honeymoon End?”
There were two guests: Bob Williams introduced his guest, David Mulford, and Arky Vaughn introduced his guest, Arch Douglas. President Hansen asked for a moment of silence in honor of former member, Wm. Richard “Dick” Margerin who died on December 25th, 2008.
President Hansen noted that Guy Dean was present with a complement of Old Guard neckties, bow ties and scarves for sale. He announced that the next meeting of the Old Guard would be held next Wednesday in the Liberation Hall of the Field Center at which John Haldon, Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, will speak on the topic. “The Avkat Archaeological Project in Turkey: Landscapes and Resources in the Ancient World.”
Ruth Miller introduced our speaker, Sean Wilentz, Princeton Professor of History, on the topic: “Reflections on the Age of Reagan.” Prof. Wilentz received B.A. degrees from both Columbia and OxfordUniversities and his Ph.D from Yale University but noted, with immoderate warmth, his status as an Honorary Member of the Princeton University Class of 2000. He is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which is “The Age of Reagan”, which he regards as a “first crack” at the history of American politics from 1980 to 2008. The book was based on a lecture series he delivered at Columbia before the recent election. He also remarked that he was honored to have been chosen to deliver The Herbert Lehman Lecture at Columbia 10 days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, prompting a colleague to suggest that he should ask for his honorarium “up front and in cash.”
Prof. Wilentz recalled Hegel’s dictum, “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the falling of dusk”—an allegorical statement that history can be written only after the passage of events. There is no history until events occur. But historical techniques and analyses of the past can add to the understanding of recent events.
Prof. Wilentz views the age of Reagan as extending until 2008. He referred to the outpouring of historical works after the death of Franklin Roosevelt and noted that no such outpouring had occurred after the Reagan presidency. His “Age of Reagan” is intended to help fill this gap.
Prof. Wilentz said that his book presents two central propositions: (1) the decades from Nixon’s fall to the end of George W. Bush’s presidency forms a coherent political era, and (2) the most important figure of the era was Ronald Reagan.
After the Johnson years the Democratic South imploded. But the Republicans were battered by Watergate (even to the extent of considering changing the party name) and the Democrats shifted to the left. Ford tried to restore the center-right but although Carter, an outsider, did win the presidency in 1976, a liberal era was not in the offing. For the next 8 years after 1980, Reagan set the terms of the debate. He skewed the tax system in favor of the wealthy and he brought the cold war to an end.
Reaganism is not same as conservatism or Republicanism. It was solely Reagan that restored public confidence after Carter’s stagflation. This, despite a savings & loan crisis that cost billions and the drowning of supply economics in red ink. Reagan put a “happy face” on conservatism. His speeches had happy endings. They might be mendacious and full of lies but Americans wanted to believe them. By contrast, Goldwater’s speeches were “spinach.”
Reagan was not just a pitchman. He was not an “airhead.” He was deeply involved in tax policy and in combating the Soviets. He even raised taxes—which he called “revenue enhancements”— they were fees instead of taxes. But he was not a stubborn ideologue. He knew how to retreat in order to advance: the skill of one step backwards in order to achieve two steps forward.
Reagan was deeply involved in the Iran Contra scandal. He even said it was his idea. But he used the “doddering old man” epithet to his advantage to avoid the scandal himself. He dismissed the hardline ideologues—North, Poindexter—and brought in Howard Baker and Webster at CIA. The Tower Commission report came out quickly and exonerated him.
This success helped him with his embrace of Gorbachev, an initiative taken against the views of his advisers. There is no need to see the “Reagan Doctrine” as the cause of the Soviet collapse. But collapse it did and Reagan left office with high approval in the polls. Both Bush I and Clinton attempted to put the center back in politics. Both failed. Clinton’s missteps led to the hard right under Newt Gingrich, although Clinton’s ultimate defeat of Gingrich was, in Prof. Wilentz’s estimation, “a thing of beauty.”
But the “turbo-charged” Reaganism of the Bush II presidency did in Reaganism. John McCain was, in effect, defeated twice by George W. Bush—once in South Carolina in 2000 and again in 2008, by having to bear the burden of the Bush presidency.
Today, the Republican party is living amidst the rubble of Reaganism. The Reagan era is over. The free market has lost the mandate of heaven. Dogmatic laissez-faire doesn’t cut it any more. But don’t despair—after we have survived this current recession, the Democrats will figure out how to screw it up again.
Respectfully submitted,
Charles W. Ufford, Jr.
Jim Livingston read the minutes of the preceding meeting of the Old Guard at which James Kelly, Managing Editor of Time, Inc. and now visiting Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, spoke on the topic, “Obama and the Press: When Will the Honeymoon End?”
There were two guests: Bob Williams introduced his guest, David Mulford, and Arky Vaughn introduced his guest, Arch Douglas. President Hansen asked for a moment of silence in honor of former member, Wm. Richard “Dick” Margerin who died on December 25th, 2008.
President Hansen noted that Guy Dean was present with a complement of Old Guard neckties, bow ties and scarves for sale. He announced that the next meeting of the Old Guard would be held next Wednesday in the Liberation Hall of the Field Center at which John Haldon, Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, will speak on the topic. “The Avkat Archaeological Project in Turkey: Landscapes and Resources in the Ancient World.”
Ruth Miller introduced our speaker, Sean Wilentz, Princeton Professor of History, on the topic: “Reflections on the Age of Reagan.” Prof. Wilentz received B.A. degrees from both Columbia and OxfordUniversities and his Ph.D from Yale University but noted, with immoderate warmth, his status as an Honorary Member of the Princeton University Class of 2000. He is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which is “The Age of Reagan”, which he regards as a “first crack” at the history of American politics from 1980 to 2008. The book was based on a lecture series he delivered at Columbia before the recent election. He also remarked that he was honored to have been chosen to deliver The Herbert Lehman Lecture at Columbia 10 days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, prompting a colleague to suggest that he should ask for his honorarium “up front and in cash.”
Prof. Wilentz recalled Hegel’s dictum, “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the falling of dusk”—an allegorical statement that history can be written only after the passage of events. There is no history until events occur. But historical techniques and analyses of the past can add to the understanding of recent events.
Prof. Wilentz views the age of Reagan as extending until 2008. He referred to the outpouring of historical works after the death of Franklin Roosevelt and noted that no such outpouring had occurred after the Reagan presidency. His “Age of Reagan” is intended to help fill this gap.
Prof. Wilentz said that his book presents two central propositions: (1) the decades from Nixon’s fall to the end of George W. Bush’s presidency forms a coherent political era, and (2) the most important figure of the era was Ronald Reagan.
After the Johnson years the Democratic South imploded. But the Republicans were battered by Watergate (even to the extent of considering changing the party name) and the Democrats shifted to the left. Ford tried to restore the center-right but although Carter, an outsider, did win the presidency in 1976, a liberal era was not in the offing. For the next 8 years after 1980, Reagan set the terms of the debate. He skewed the tax system in favor of the wealthy and he brought the cold war to an end.
Reaganism is not same as conservatism or Republicanism. It was solely Reagan that restored public confidence after Carter’s stagflation. This, despite a savings & loan crisis that cost billions and the drowning of supply economics in red ink. Reagan put a “happy face” on conservatism. His speeches had happy endings. They might be mendacious and full of lies but Americans wanted to believe them. By contrast, Goldwater’s speeches were “spinach.”
Reagan was not just a pitchman. He was not an “airhead.” He was deeply involved in tax policy and in combating the Soviets. He even raised taxes—which he called “revenue enhancements”— they were fees instead of taxes. But he was not a stubborn ideologue. He knew how to retreat in order to advance: the skill of one step backwards in order to achieve two steps forward.
Reagan was deeply involved in the Iran Contra scandal. He even said it was his idea. But he used the “doddering old man” epithet to his advantage to avoid the scandal himself. He dismissed the hardline ideologues—North, Poindexter—and brought in Howard Baker and Webster at CIA. The Tower Commission report came out quickly and exonerated him.
This success helped him with his embrace of Gorbachev, an initiative taken against the views of his advisers. There is no need to see the “Reagan Doctrine” as the cause of the Soviet collapse. But collapse it did and Reagan left office with high approval in the polls. Both Bush I and Clinton attempted to put the center back in politics. Both failed. Clinton’s missteps led to the hard right under Newt Gingrich, although Clinton’s ultimate defeat of Gingrich was, in Prof. Wilentz’s estimation, “a thing of beauty.”
But the “turbo-charged” Reaganism of the Bush II presidency did in Reaganism. John McCain was, in effect, defeated twice by George W. Bush—once in South Carolina in 2000 and again in 2008, by having to bear the burden of the Bush presidency.
Today, the Republican party is living amidst the rubble of Reaganism. The Reagan era is over. The free market has lost the mandate of heaven. Dogmatic laissez-faire doesn’t cut it any more. But don’t despair—after we have survived this current recession, the Democrats will figure out how to screw it up again.
Respectfully submitted,
Charles W. Ufford, Jr.