What Would Reagan Say?

After narrowly losing the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, Ronald Reagan immediately resumed his newspaper column and radio commentaries. He continued them well into 1979. He used those venues to express opinions on all the major issues of the day, and quite a few minor ones.

It is a precedent that most of the Republicans who are trying to be his heirs have not chosen to follow. The Republicans who are running for president in 2016, or thought to be running for it, or to be considering it, will all say that they have Reagan’s principles and his spirit. They will all defend their policies as in keeping with his. Most of them, however, seem intent on minimizing their involvement in controversies. It is the opposite of the approach that Reagan took in the run-up to the 1980 presidential campaign.