Conservatism Unravels, Part Two

One thing to keep in mind, Reagan was a POLITICIAN. He often spoke in very direct, ideological terms, but in the end, he was willing to compromise. He "talked" free trade, but, if I remember right, he protected certain businesses, like Harley-Davidson, from foreign competition. He was much taken with "supply side" economic theory that had become quite popular in the 1970s. The thing was, with inflation rampant throughout much of the 1970s, with ever higher...ah...oil and gasoline prices contributing to the spiral, the country was looking for some way to rein in prices. With the idea that inflation was "too much demand chasing too few goods/services," the notion was to spur more production to bring prices down. The major thrust of this policy/theory was to cut taxes of all kinds, with a tilt toward business and upper incomes, so that there would be more production; that is, "supply." Thus began the modern Republican Party's (and the conservative movement's) love affair with tax cuts.

I'm not an economist, and I'm not sure that even matters, as not all economists agree on the effects of various policies, but how much Reagan's tax cuts and economic policies contributed to the American economic scene is debatable.### First, Paul Volker (I believe he's a Republican, but I can't absolutely swear to that) had been appointed by Jimmy Carter to be Federal Reserve Chairman. Volker, literally a towering man at six feet seven inches tall, was a tough, no nonsense guy. He jacked up interest rates until we all screamed "Uncle!!!" In this case, his and the Fed's idea was to cut consumption of goods and services, and thus bring prices down (in other words, the opposite of "supply side"). To be quite honest, it was a Fed driven recessionary period that followed. Beginning in the late 1970s, the economy, virtually choked by sky high interest rates, began to sputter. In the early 1980s, when Reagan was president, the economy went into a major tailspin, with unemployment soaring to more than 10%. Some "liberal" economists and politicians pointed the finger at Reagan, but myself, I don't see how anything he had done up to that point contributed to the downturn. In fact, his tax cuts probably helped bring the country out of recession. The thing for conservatism (and its main "vehicle," the Republican Party) was, if some tax cuts are good for America, then a lot more tax cuts will be even better for America. (Hey, some chocolate is good for you, but a lot of chocolate gives you the...ah...well, you know.) Reagan's policies seemed at war with one another at times,*** as he cut taxes, but increased military spending by tremendous amounts. Some items in the Federal Budget were trimmed, but overall, budget deficits under Reagan soared to previously unheard of heights. Contrary to what some Republicans would have people believe, Reagan did raise taxes, preferring to call some of them "revenue enhancers," rather than taxes. So again, he was NOT the unbending conservative ideologue, and as Reagan prepared to leave office, the Republic was safe, although there was a major Wall Street meltdown during Reagan's last couple of years in office, but the overall effect on the economy was nothing like the 1929 crash, nor, it seems, what we are witnessing today. The economy was a bit staggered, but it remained standing. Reagan became the man other Republicans wanted to emulate, so much so, that some seemed to try to out-Reagan, Reagan. Enter George Bush, Sr. (A word history is further below)

Part Three later...

*** During the race for the Republican nomination, Reagan's major opponent, George Bush (Sr.), dubbed Reagan's economic ideas "voodoo economics," a term perpetuated by the media (and Democrats) pretty much throughout his presidency. For those too young, George Bush (Sr.) became Reagan's vice president.

### I don't think I'm being unfair here, as I've also noted that, while Democrats loved to "claim" that Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal policies ended the Depression, that wasn't really the case, for while a drop in unemployment from 24% to like 15% was certainly a vast improvement, it wasn't exactly heaven come to Earth. FDR's personality and his policies helped make Americans feel better (just as Reagan did), and that deserves note, but it was the start of World War Two, and then our later involvement in the war, that finally put the stake through the heart of the Great Depression. Interestingly, Reagan had been "a New Deal Democrat," and he was noted for frequently quoting FDR in some of his major speeches throughout his presidency.

Word History:
Edge-Noun-This word comes from the Indo European root "ak," which meant "sharp or pointed." This was passed down to the Germanic branch as "agjo," which meant "corner, edge." (You can see the relationship to "pointed.") This in turn gave Old English "ecg," which besides the meaning "corner, edge," also meant the "sharpened side of a sword or knife blade." Indeed, to this very day we say that a blade "has an edge to it." Later, English shifted to a spelling of "egg(e)," and then to the modern "edge." The English verb "egg," as in "to incite," or "to egg someone on," is related to "edge," and was borrowed from related Germanic language, Old Norse, with the idea being of "nudging" (perhaps with a sharpened blade? Hey, that would get me moving!) and the idea also came into English of "edging along," or "edging ever closer to something," with the idea of relatively slow movement toward something. The relatives of English still use the word (obviously in their own form), as German, for example, has "Ecke," meaning "corner," and Norwegian and Swedish have "egg," meaning "edge." Further, a form of the old Indo European root "ak" also passed into Latin and Greek (both related to English further down the "family tree"), and English later picked up words from these two languages; for example, "acrid," ("sharp smelling") "acute," ("sharp pain, or condition," not by the way like, "Look! What acute dog!") "alacrity," ("intense; that is, sharp liveliness, briskness").