Reagan, if only as messenger, is the one who softened the edges. Reagan made the rich believe that could get away with actually undermining the safety net for their gain. Reagan's charisma made the libertarian and religious impulses of the Repubs less threatening. Reganism was about freedom -- they tied the anti-freedom of USSR to the anti-freedom of regulations. Reagan's messgae" You should be free to be rich and we will make it possiblle. We will do everything in our power to reduce external impediments (USSR) and internal impediments (welfare state, taxes). Reagan made it possible to address this as having broad impact for most Americans, when in fact, it was a very narrow band of Americans that really stood to gain. As for the religious right, it is also about freedom -- to be free from the dictates of the Supreme Court's anti-theocracy opinions of the 1960s. Same is true of the gun-nuts. This is what Reagan promised. In large part, it was a return to a fictionalized pre-revolutionary America to when the Articles of Confederation reigned.
Nathan Newman <nathan at newman.org> wrote: >From: eric dorkin
>It strikes me that the real Reagan "revolution" is the
>(re)birth of a distorted sense of freedom. People
>believe now, more so than they did pre-Reagan, that
>the well being of their neighbors and fellow citizens are
>secondary goods to be achieved only after individual success
>(usually defined in pecuniary terms). To say another way,
>"we would be free to do as we see fit because no one knows
>my needs better than me -- just you and your laws, leave me alone"
That libertarian sentiment is as much a product of the counter-culture as of Reaganism and doesn't explain the rise of the religious right which is very interested in NOT having people left alone.
As I noted, I don't buy interpreting certain policy successes as overarching ideological changes. I think that the Right was much more strategic in holding together the conflicting libertarian and majoritarian impulses that permeated their coalition. The explanation of rightwing ideological success is far better explained by the concrete coalition-building outlined in books like Sidney Blumenthal's RISE OF THE COUNTER ESTABLISHMENT than in sorting through public opinion polls that are remarkably unchanging on many issues that saw quite dramatic policy changes over the years.
-- Nathan Newman
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