Goodnight Reagan Revolution

I feel confident in stating that Conservative economic policy, and the conservative world view in turn, have been dealt a fatal blow by the current economic recession. The troubles we are having with our economy represent the failure of the conservative ethic that the private sector can do everything better than the public. It shows plainly to all that deregulation and the attempt to create an unbridled capitalism can only lead to disaster for the majority while the fat cats get fatter. The instability inherent in this system is obvious, how many times must the pattern be repeated?? Only drug addicts and the mentally insane repeat an action incessantly and expect different results.

I say goodnight to the Reagan Revolution because George Bush was the last president from this era of new conservatism. This era goes back to Goldwater and the coalition of traditionalists and libertarians that tried to get him elected in 64. The era culminated with the Reagan years when the Neocons and Hawks were added to the team. I'm reading a good book on the subject right now titled "Us Versus Them" that follows the phenomenon of conservative politics in America, especially as it relates to foreign policy and nuclear weapons. It explains modern or new conservatism as an outgrowth of the sense of American exceptionalism, and a reaction to communism. This movement was essentially reactionary, it did not want to admit that nuclear weapons completely changed the nature of warfare, and could not accept the Realist school of thought regarding international politics. Denial of MAD was a distinguishing feature.

I believe this era is over because not only is the cold war over, but the attempt to transpose the cold war Us and Them mentality onto the war on terror has been a failure of momentous proportions. That the failure of this propagandistic enterprise (It did succeed in starting a war, but I hope people will be more wary next time) happened to coincide with the failing economy and President bush's departure from office is representative of the death of modern conservative philosophy. It blows my mind that in the debate over the economic stimulus plan republicans can give the same argument for the same policies that have caused this fiasco in the first place. They're insistence on their founding belief that more government spending will only make things worse shows how ill-suited the conservative philosophy is for modern America. I hope others can see this as well.