Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same

Chapter 8. The Ascendancy of Ronald Reagan and the Parts Played by Ideology and Race

CHAPTER EIGHT The Ascendancy of Ronald Reagan and the Parts Played by Ideology and Race This chapter examines the ascendancy of the conservative movement to national power, with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The seeds of Reagan’s election were first planted in the 1948 presidential election, replenished in 1964, and became fully flowered in 1968. By 1972 the fruits that would result in the 1980 election outcome were there for the harvesting. Little of the history I will recount here will be new to those familiar with postwar presidential elections, nor do I offer in this chapter a systematic history of presidential elections from 1948 to 1980. Rather, I want to show the relationship between racism and conservative principles in understanding presidential politics. As I have tried to show in the previous chapters, conservatism as an ideology in the United States, whether expressed by intellectuals such as Milton Friedman or William Buckley or politicians such as Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, is the same as racism. That is, a strict adherence to the principles of the ideology necessarily results in the maintenance of the subordination of African Americans. Numerous scholars have pointed to the significance of racism in the conservative ascendancy to national power between 1964 and 1980.1 I will discuss some of this work in the course of this chapter; however, the main point expressed here is that “it’s the ideology, stupid.” That is, conservatives used racism to win elections, rather than attempting to win elections in order to formulate racist policies.2 This is not to imply that the conservatives who took control of the Republican Party were racists. Most probably were not, and even if they had been, the “norm of racial equality” had by that time made explicit racist appeals unacceptable.3 Rather, appeals to antiblack sentiments became just one among many ways for conservatives to accomplish their strategic objective of winning elections. Winning those elections on the basis of conservative principles, however, if those principles were implemented was tantamount to racism. 107 108 Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same Conservatism and Racism: “It’s the Ideology, Stupid” Interestingly, as I was preparing the first draft of this chapter, a squabble emerged in the national press over whether Reagan was a racist. Paul Krugman , one of the New York Times’ liberal columnists, started the contretemps. In a column titled “Seeking Willie Horton” Krugman wrote, “Reagan didn’t begin his 1980 campaign with a speech on supply side economics, he began it—at the urging of young Trent Lott—with a speech supporting states’ rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.”4 Krugman contended this was a deliberate attempt to signal to white racists that he was on their side and was part of a Republican strategy going back to the 1960s to build a conservative majority on the basis of racism. A couple of weeks later David Brooks, the Times’ conservative columnist, responded with “History and Calumny,” writing that the attack on Reagan was a slur; that the decision to speak in Philadelphia was a result of Reagan’s “famously disorganized campaign staff”; and that “[i]n reality, Reagan strategists decided to spend the week after the Republican convention courting African American voters. Reagan delivered a major address at the Urban League, visited Vernon Jordan in the hospital where he was recovering from gunshot wounds, toured the South Bronx and traveled to Chicago to meet with the editorial boards of Ebony and Jet magazines.”5 But Brooks also acknowledged, “It’s callous, at least, to use the phrase ‘states rights’ in any context in Philadelphia. Reagan could have done something wonderful if he had mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn’t. And it’s obviously true that race played a role in the G.O.P’s ascent,” Nevertheless, Brooks concluded, it is a “distortion” to conclude that “Reagan opened his campaign with an appeal to racism.”6 Several days later Bob Herbert, the Times’ African American columnist , weighed in, writing, “Reagan was the first presidential candidate ever to appear at the fair, and he knew exactly what he was doing when he told that crowd ‘I believe in states rights.’ . . . Throughout his career Reagan was wrong, insensitive and mean spirited on civil rights and other issues important to black people. There is no way for the scribes of today to clean up that dismal record...