Ronald Reagan didn't invent the modern American right. He's the fulcrum it balances on, built by a thirty-year apprenticeship most retellings skip, then invoked by every wing of it since. Book One: the performer nobody was watching yet. Book Two: the public man, from the speech that announced him through the presidency people remember. Book Three: the canonization, the invocations that don't survive contact with his record, and what was really happening to him while the performance ran.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
A congressman overdrew his account 22 times, including one $9,463 check to the IRS. He spent the next two years making a career out of exposing everyone else who did the same thing.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
Margaret Thatcher’s last word on Reagan was a recording. Her own body had done to her roughly what his had done to him.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
“At the moment I feel just fine.” Then he told the country what was coming anyway.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
Reagan signed one of the strictest gun laws in the country in 1967, then spent 1991 and 1994 lobbying for two more. The myth came later, and it isn’t his.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
O’Connor was chosen for trust, Bork for record, Souter for the absence of one. The conservative legal movement spent the next 30 years learning from all three.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
Iran-Contra’s pardoned alumni never left. One ended up handling Iran policy, one ran a surveillance program, and one became president of the NRA.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
One adverb, “knowingly,” protected employers from the law meant to hold them accountable. Forty years later, both parties are still content to leave it in.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
C. Everett Koop wrote the AIDS report himself, in a basement, and handed out numbered copies so no one could edit it. Then he mailed it to every household in America.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
D.A.R.E. didn't work, its founder wanted casual users shot, and the 1986 drug law was written in a few months after one death. The war on drugs, 1982 to 1990.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
Reagan called the Soviets the focus of evil, then nearly gave away every nuclear weapon in sight. His own cabinet said whoa, whoa, not like that.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
PATCO endorsed Reagan, got a letter promising cooperation, and was decertified by October 1981. The law was the stated reason. The message to private employers was the point.
The Fulcrum: how Reagan was the pivotal point in conservatism
In December 1982, unemployment hit 10.8%, the worst since the Depression, sixteen months after Reagan took office. The tax cut came first. The pain came after.