Today’s Politics Wouldn’t Embrace Reagan’s Pragmatism

CAPITOL OFFENSES Brendan Huffman While Americans celebrated Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday last week, many historians and pundits have been praising his leadership skills, particularly the pragmatism he displayed during his tenures as Governor and President. At the same time, he is being embraced by many politicians who have proven to be far from pragmatic. Surely, he was pragmatic and usually demonstrated unique skills as a consensus builder, communicator and leader. While those qualities are among the essentials of being a successful Governor or President, I wonder if Ronald Reagan could secure his party’s nomination for either office, let alone be elected? Today’s parties are increasingly intolerant of those who stray from the parties’ ideologies, as shown last week by liberals outraged that President Obama would speak at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In turn, tea party conservatives have moved the GOP even further to the right, repudiating many of the “establishment” Republican officeholders who had delivered for their constituents as a result of working with all of their colleagues, not just Republicans. As for Reagan, one can only imagine the types of attack ads funded by the right wing of the GOP attacking his record as Governor of California. The narratives practically write themselves, just insert the dramatic voiceover: “Just after a few months in office, Gov. Ronald Reagan signed his state’s largest tax increase in history… and now he wants to be President. Tell Ronald Reagan that the Republican Party is for conservatives, not tax and spend liberals!” Tax hike Unlike many of the attack ads we see on TV today that are, at best, inaccurate, the narrative I just made up is factual. In 1967, Reagan actually did call for a large tax hike, and a bipartisan majority of legislators gave him just what he asked for even after he had run against incumbent Pat Brown for spending and taxing too much. The pragmatic Reagan realized that without the tax hike, the state would have to shut down most of its public works projects approved by the voters in recent years, projects that to this day provide world class educations, supply water throughout the state, and move goods from our seaports to the rest of North America. In 1967, many conservatives and business groups went along with Gov. Reagan’s tax hike, which is still a record in California. They went along with it because they trusted him as a fiscal conservative who had carefully weighed all the options and consequences if taxes were not increased. Strategically, Reagan and his aides knew that the time to raise taxes was in his first year of office. If the budget could be balanced, then ensuing fiscal stability would allow him to implement his own agenda. Plus, he could still blame his predecessor for the need to raise taxes, which seems to be part of our current governor’s strategy these days. OK, let’s try another attack ad against Ronald Reagan: “As governor, Ronald Reagan embraced environmental extremists and signed legislation to make it impossible to build anything on private property. True Republicans support creating jobs, not taking away private property rights.” Wow, I’m getting good at this, but I’m not making up facts. In 1970, on the first Earth Day no less, Gov. Reagan signed into law the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which to this day is cursed by property owners and business leaders as a leading reason why California is such a costly state for employers – and public works projects. Furthermore, Gov. Reagan created the Air Resources Board and blocked highway projects through many parts of the Sierra Nevadas. Curse those liberal devils! Alright, here’s the last attack ad, and it’s a doosie! “As governor, Ronald Reagan approved one of the nation’s first abortion on demand laws. Then he collaborated with Democrats to keep Californians on welfare. Silly Reagan, the Republican Party is for Republicans!” What, Reagan signed the historic bill to legalize abortions in California? In fact, he expressed reservations about it in later years, but, yes, he did indeed sign the bill, which was largely opposed by Democrats and supported by many Republican lawmakers. Can you imagine that happening today? No room for pragmatism Today’s Republican Party has no room for pragmatic candidates. Instead, it has purged itself of lawmakers who have ever compromised with Democrats. Conservative Assemblymembers such as Anthony Adams and Roger Niello have found out the hard way as their party has essentially blackballed them from ever running for office again, at least as Republicans. Democrats also have issues with compromising lawmakers from their party. The Democratic Party does a good job of promoting candidates who call for tolerance and acceptance of same sex couples, but not always for those who have stressed bipartisanship. Just ask Bob Hertzberg or Steve Westly. The point of all this is to ask of ourselves what have we become. Are we celebrating Reagan’s birthday because of his image as a conservative icon, or are we celebrating him as a pragmatic leader who often put his ideology aside for what was best for all Californians and all Americans? Watching hundreds of commercials last year, it is abundantly clear that too many candidates (many of whom are now officeholders) and voters consider compromise a show of weakness. But in our daily lives, don’t we all compromise, whether it’s in our marriages, how we raise our kids, or how we conduct business? If we make compromises every day with our spouses, how do we expect 140 state legislators or 535 members of Congress to make decisions without compromising? Much of the brilliance of Ronald Reagan was the fact that he did compromise so that he could effectively govern and implement his vision. Had he not compromised time and time again as Governor and President, his legacy would have been as an ideological and ineffective leader as opposed to one of the most admired politicians in world history and the most effective president since FDR. Therefore, let’s stop praising him for what he was not and instead celebrate him for what he was – a right of center leader who figured out quickly how to govern through compromise and consensus building. Brendan Huffman is a Valley-based public policy consultant and owner of Huffman Public Affairs, LLC. He is co-host of “Off The Presses,” a public affairs show streaming live every Thursday at 11 a.m. on LATalkRadio.com