Why Reaganism Persists on the American Right

When publishers sought to put a cover on Matthew Continetti’s 100-year history of the American right, they chose an image of Ronald Reagan. It’s an interesting choice because the book seems to show that, within a century, the American right shifted from protectionism and foreign policy restraint in the 1920s to free trade and internationalism in the 1980s and 1990s, only to go back again under Donald Trump.

But the whole of the American right is stalked by the suspicion that Trumpism is a phase — a fad — that depends entirely on Trump’s celebrity and that soon things will go back to normal. At conservative movement fundraisers, the Gipper’s influence is still lauded and celebrated in video montages. When writers try to understand the evolution of the Republican Party, they compare Trumpism to Reaganism. It’s an astonishing thing that a man whose last electoral win was 41 years ago still exercises such a strong hold on the party’s imagination. When Reagan was becoming a political contender for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1970s, there was no giant messaging apparatus arguing on behalf of Hooverism. Continetti and I are now middle-aged figures in a movement that still orients itself around a political legacy that we are too young to remember. And yet, in 2024, figures such as Nikki Haley and Mike Pence openly coveted the Reagan mantle.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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When publishers sought to put a cover on Matthew Continetti’s 100-year history of the American right, they chose an image of Ronald Reagan. It’s an interesting choice because the book seems to show that, within a century, the American right shifted from protectionism and foreign policy restraint in the 1920s to free trade and internationalism in the 1980s and 1990s, only to go back again under Donald Trump.

But the whole of the American right is stalked by the suspicion that Trumpism is a phase — a fad — that depends entirely on Trump’s celebrity and that soon things will go back to normal. At conservative movement fundraisers, the Gipper’s influence is still lauded and celebrated in video montages. When writers try to understand the evolution of the Republican Party, they compare Trumpism to Reaganism. It’s an astonishing thing that a man whose last electoral win was 41 years ago still exercises such a strong hold on the party’s imagination. When Reagan was becoming a political contender for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1970s, there was no giant messaging apparatus arguing on behalf of Hooverism. Continetti and I are now middle-aged figures in a movement that still orients itself around a political legacy that we are too young to remember. And yet, in 2024, figures such as Nikki Haley and Mike Pence openly coveted the Reagan mantle.