The Fusionist Politics of Ronald Reagan

WHAT THE 40TH PRESIDENT TEACHES US ABOUT LIBERTY, VIRTUE, AND THEIR LIMITS

- STEPHANIE SLADE

THERE ARE SO many people and institutions that come to mind for their role in the success we celebrate tonight," President Ronald Reagan said at the 1981 Conservative Political Action Conference, just two months after his inauguration. "Intellectual leaders like Russell Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, James Burnham, Ludwig von Mises." And Frank Meyer, who had "fashioned a vigorous new synthesis of traditional and libertarian thought—a synthesis that is today recognized by many as modern conservatism."

Meyer, Reagan said, believed that "a respect for law and an appreciation of tradition" should "motivate us even as we seek a new economic prosperity based on reducing government interference in the marketplace. Our goals complement each other." Though Reagan did not use the word, this was Meyer’s philosophy of fusionism to a tee: the idea that virtue and liberty are mutually reinforcing, and that neither is possible in any lasting or meaningful way without the other.

Reagan, famous as a rhetorician, had long blended classical liberalism with Judeo-Christian traditionalism in his speeches. The outcome on one Election Day after another suggested that the message resonated with more than just conservatives.

The American electorate overwhelmingly embraced Reagan, rewarding him with a commanding 44-state win in 1980 and a stunning 49-state victory in 1984.

For all his talk of liberty and virtue, Reagan’s record on the ground was complicated from a fusionist perspective, let alone a libertarian one. He set out to reduce government but floundered when it came to reining in spending. On the flip side, he cared about traditional morality but angered the Religious Right by often (though not always) adopting a hands-off attitude when it came to legislation.