It would be the highest irony if the evidence of conservative evolution came on the occasion of a bruising midterm election, but two stories by the media today suggest that conservatives have changed the paradigm of politics over the last generation.
A CNN poll indicates that a majority of Americans now believes that government tries to do too much, while The New York Times reports that Democrats have begun producing less liberal candidates in order to win seats in Congress. Both together show that the Reagan Revolution has continued to influence politics well past the end of his administration.
It’s important to remember what came before Reagan.
Mainstream politics in the 1960s and 1970s had achieved a consensus between progressives such as Hubert Humphrey and Republicans such as Nelson Rockefeller. The general principle of government as a beneficent mechanism to cure societal ills was widely accepted. Even a president as conservative as Richard Nixon wound up christening the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency.
After an economically and politically disastrous decade, Ronald Reagan won election and immediately began changing the paradigm.
He insisted that government created more problems than it solves and that the power of free markets would always outperform government agencies in creating economic opportunity. His policies transformed the American economy and began a massive growth cycle that has continued with only occasional lulls ever since.
During his time, Reagan received plenty of criticism for his view of government.
Now, however, it appears that the message has finally become accepted wisdom. CNN shows that a majority of Americans believe that government tries to do too much, even now, while only 37 percent believe it does not do enough. The liberal paradigm of Big Government solutions appears to have dissipated among the electorate.
This shift is reflected in the candidates fielded by the political parties. Republicans won a House majority in 1994 based on the promise of smaller government and less regulation, and their opponents may have finally learned the same lessons. The New York Times analyzed the House races in these midterms last week, and found that the Democrats have had to find more conservative candidates in order to compete with the GOP.
It shows the success of the Reagan message, and once again underscores the profound impact he had on American politics.
His Western conservatism has resonated because it based itself on the truths that informed the founders of the nation: that government which governs least governs best. America does best when it allows individuals to live their lives free of government interference, when it respects private property, and when it keeps most political questions as close to local governments as possible. It’s the marvel of the Constitution that it reveals all of these truths.
Reagan, and Barry Goldwater before him,understood how to communicate that exceptionality.
If the Republicans find themselves in trouble at the midterms, it may come in reaction to the extent that they have failed to grasp the Reagan message. The smaller-government message will still win elections, but the question may be for whom it wins those contests when the GOP fails to tend to its Reagan legacy.
Regardless, the difference between the 1970s and now demonstrates the power of Reagan’s vision — which was not that different from that of the Founding Fathers.
Ed Morrissey is a member of The Washington Examiner Blog Board of Contributors and blogs at captainsquartersblog.com.
