It's true. As McClatchy points out, Reagan was nothing like today's Republican candidates. He will not be honored by their visit tonight,and when they invoke the Reagan presidency they will be invoking a man who would be pretty well horrified by all of them.
As president, the conservative icon approved several tax increases to deal with a soaring budget deficit, repeatedly boosted the nation's debt limit, signed into law a bill granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants and, despite his anti-Washington rhetoric, oversaw an increase in the size and spending of the federal government. Before that, as California governor, he enacted what at the time was the largest state tax increase in American history. He also signed into law one of the nation's most permissive abortion bills. Any Republican who tried that today would be cast out of the party.
The fact that Reagan often took such actions speaks to what, by modern Republican standards, may be one of the greatest heresies of all: Reagan was a pragmatist, willing, when necessary, to cut a deal and compromise.
"He had a strong set of core values and operated off of those," said Stuart Spencer, a Republican strategist who stood by Reagan's side for virtually his entire political career, starting with his first run for governor. "But when push came to shove, he did various things he didn't like doing, because he knew it was in the best interests of the state or country at the time."
Spencer dismissed the current vogue of Reagan revisionism: "A lot of those people running out there don't really understand what he did. It's just a matter of attaching themselves to a winner." ...
It's pretty much up to Brian Williams and John Harris to put tonight's debate into that frame. Will they do it? ... Um...
