Ronaldus Magnus

Newt Vs. Reagan, The Sequel

Featured image Both Elliott Abrams, at National Review Online, and, as John Hinderaker noted yesterday, Pete Wehner (quoting from my book) have brought up Newt Gingrich’s pungent criticisms of Reagan back in the 1980s, supposedly giving the lie to Newt’s claim to have been solidly aligned with Reagan in those glory days of conservative nostalgia.  It is perfectly fair of Elliott and Pete to call Newt on his revisionist history, but what »

There They Go Again, Again

Featured image There’s a splendid line in The Queen, the film about how the royal family responded to the death of Princess Diana in 1997, where the new Prime Minister Tony Blair (played pitch perfect by Michael Sheen) turns savagely on his press assistant Alastair Campbell and says, “When you get it wrong, you really get it wrong!” The line comes immediately to mind when seeing the latest issue of The Economist, »

William Niskanen, RIP

Featured image It is with great sadness that the news comes today of the passing of William Niskanen, the long-time chairman of the Cato Institute and veteran of the Reagan Administration (he was chair of Reagan’s council of economic advisers for a spell).  Niskanen was one of the great gentlemen of Washington and one of the intellectual giants of our movement.  His modest, quiet manner in a town of loud climbers made »

There They Go Again, Again

Featured image So now it’s Nancy Pelosi’s turn, saying on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday: “Listen to Ronald Reagan when he talked about how unfair it was for a bus driver to be paying at the same rate as a millionaire. . . . He speaks beautifully to the unfairness of that scenario.” Sigh.  Well, good news: my Commentary magazine October cover story, “The Liberal Misappropriation of a Conservative President,” is now out from behind »

There They Go Again

Featured image The Washington Post’s Al Kamen today spotlights the Center for American Progress’s latest bit of mischief (“Ronald Reagan, The Original Class Warrior?“)—reposting a speech of Ronald Reagan from 1986 in which the Gipper said: We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it »

Invasion of the Body Snatchers III, Starring Ronald Reagan

Featured image My Commentary magazine cover story, “The Liberal Misappropriation of Ronald Reagan,” is out in the October issue.  Unfortunately it is behind a subscriber firewall for the time being; the link here is to the abstract only.  But this gives you a good reason to subscribe! But here’s one excerpt about Obama’s abuse of Reagan: WE CAN START with Obama’s use of Reagan’s words about “raising revenue from those who are not now »