Building the Reagan Vision
by Brad Lips

Conservatives can be excused for basking in a celebratory mood in these weeks since the 2004 election. George Bush campaigned for conservative reforms and won a mandate, and Republicans strengthened their majorities in Congress and Senate. Post-election commentary from the mainstream media has been delivered with mouths agape at the diminishing power of the urban liberal establishment. All this is a bit wonderful.

But of course, ballot box victories are only a means to achieving true victory in the battle of ideas. To grasp the larger scheme of things, we might borrow from Winston Churchill: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Conservatives have traveled a long distance over the last 40 years, from the depths of Barry Goldwater's electoral defeat, to the present moment of opportunity. All progress to this point could be squandered, however, if Republicans become content simply to govern over the status quo, or if political in-fighting produces stalemate instead of conservative reform.

To avoid this outcome, it is essential for rank-and-file conservatives to realize how much depends on their continuing efforts. History books may record these next years' accomplishments (or lack thereof) as the doings of President Bush and the 109th Congress. But the truth is that political reform is seldom ever the work of political leaders challenging the popular consensus. If our ideas are to prevail, it will be because conservatives have transformed the popular consensus.

A new book I co-authored, The Reagan Vision, argues that Ronald Reagan's words and example provide our best roadmap for achieving the popular consensus we seek. Reagan spoke of "navigat[ing] by certain fixed principles: Freedom is our North Star, and common sense our constellations." To the extent that the Republican Party has become a successful party of ideas -- while the Democratic Party has deteriorated into a servant of conflicting interest groups -- it is because there is general agreement over these principles.

Ronald Reagan deserves tremendous credit, and a good deal of deference from today's Republicans, as the most successful advocate of this conservative vision -- the seeds of which were planted by intellectuals like Friedrich Hayek and Frank Meyer -- that employs "libertarian means to achieve traditionalist ends."

Of course, there's something ironic about celebrating a politician who had great success in popularizing the ideas of liberty, while simultaneously cautioning against putting too much faith in our current political leaders. But the true conservative recognizes the value of prudence.

We would love to be proven wrong, and see politicians everywhere aspire to Reaganesque levels of principle and succeed. In the meantime, we continue forward with the task of building a broader movement, so it will be easier for less ideological politicians to agree with us in the future.

After all, the rise of American conservatism did not occur in a vacuum. Reagan's political debut speaking on behalf of Goldwater to a national audience in October 1964, and his death in June 2004, neatly bookend a four-decade climb in the respectability of conservative ideas. A number of conservative institutions emerged over this same period.

Notably, the American Conservative Union was founded in 1964. Would Reagan's ideas have been received as favorably if not for ACU and other outposts of conservative thought that emerged to challenge the left-leaning consensus that still dominates academia and the media?

The challenge to this generation of conservatives is to remain vigilant in the task of communicating sound values to new constituencies. The Reagan Vision includes a list of ten ideas of how conservatives can make a difference in reviving the Reagan Revolution. Opening checkbooks to support the think tanks and advocacy groups is one recommendation; closing checkbooks to leftist colleges and universities is another. Conservatives can find a niche in many different places, from volunteering in school choice battles, to challenging the liberal bias in local newspapers, to instilling in children and grandchildren what Ronald Reagan called "an informed patriotism" and love of freedom.

Given the "natural tendency" Jefferson observed, of government to grow at the expense of liberty, conservatives never will achieve permanent victory. But the good news of recent years has been a decline in the institutional power of our opponents on the Left. Changing technology has broken the near-monopoly liberals enjoyed in the media. In the culture, we sense an exhaustion of patience with the political correctness and the moral relativism of Hollywood. And as the recent election showed, Democrats are losing their dominant grip on key constituencies; Republicans have developed more advanced political operations and earned trust among voters that conservative principles are the best route to greater security, prosperity, and freedom.

Brad Lips is the chief operating officer of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the co-author of The Reagan Vision.

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