Republicans are counting on big gains in congressional elections this fall and in the presidential election in 2024. The headwinds are in their favor — high and rising inflation, slowing growth and possible recession, crushing debt, and a public increasingly unhappy with the leftist turn of Democratic leadership. But conservatives are also badly divided, especially over former president Trump. And in their internal squabbles, they ignore powerful tailwinds that have put the Republican Party in the favorable position it occupies today. Those tailwinds are, in good part, the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
Reagan revitalized American conservatism in three ways. First, he united the liberal and traditional wings of the Republican Party and made it competitive again in national politics. For the 48 years before 1981, Republicans controlled the Congress for only four years each in the House and the Senate and for only 16 years in the White House. In the 42 years after 1981, they have controlled the Senate for 22 years (Democrats 20), the House for 20 years (Democrats 22), and the White House for 24 years (Democrats 20). Republicans complain that this political change did not win the culture war, but they overlook the fact that, without this political shift — which put in place a conservative Supreme Court, multiple conservative think tanks, and Fox and other conservative broadcasting networks — they would not be on the verge today of significantly influencing that culture war, a feat unthinkable 40 years ago.
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