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Well, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute just asked the American people what time it is in America, and the answer was resoundingly clear: It’s time to return to the timeless principles of Ronald Reagan.
In conjunction with the Reagan National Defense Forum, the foundation recently released its annual survey of public opinion on defense and security issues, for which a bipartisan team of researchers interviewed more than 2,500 adults across the country. It found that our most popular president in the past 46 years is Reagan, with a 65 percent approval rating — far outpacing Donald Trump (47 percent) and Joe Biden (38 percent). Not only do Americans still long for Reagan’s infectious optimism and the twinkle in his eye; they also continue to support Reagan’s national security policies.
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Solid bipartisan majorities support the “Reagan Doctrine” principle of helping friends and allies defend themselves — specifically, 71 percent support helping Israel, 67 percent support helping Ukraine and 65 percent support helping Taiwan. And an overwhelming 76 percent say it is important for the United States that Ukraine defeats Russia. Americans still agree, as Reagan put it in his 1985 State of the Union address, that “we must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives — on every continent ... to defy ... aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.”
Americans also support Reagan’s principle of “peace through strength.” A 77 percent supermajority wants to increase defense spending. Indeed, more Americans support increased spending on defense than border security. Two-thirds (67 percent) say they are concerned that budget cuts by Congress will reduce the military’s capabilities, and 69 percent are concerned we do not have the defense manufacturing capacity to produce weapons for our national defense.
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Americans also want the U.S. military to stand watch on ramparts of freedom. Two-thirds (66 percent) support maintaining our military presence across the globe to deter attacks and respond to emerging threats, while just 28 percent want to reduce our overseas presence. And 79 percent are concerned about rising authoritarianism around the world.
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“Forty years after his campaign for re-election,” the Institute points out, Reagan’s “ideas and principles have even greater popularity, and his defense and foreign policy worldview continues to reflect the views of most Americans today.”
What’s most encouraging is that Americans still support Reagan’s ideals despite the fact that few are making the case for them, while a vocal neo-isolationist minority on the right is arguing against them. Sadly, the Heritage Foundation, once keeper of the flame of the Reagan Revolution, is actively opposing Reagan’s national security policies. The Reagan defense buildup? Kevin Roberts, Heritage’s president, recently declared that “defense and non-defense spending must both be on the table” for budget cuts and that “Congress needs to put away its kid gloves and put the Department of Defense and other agencies alike under the knife to excise wasteful spending.” The Reagan Doctrine? Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, is counting a vote in favor of Ukraine aid against Republicans on its scorecard of conservative purity, while Roberts insists that “we have to take care of our interests at home before spending any more money on Ukraine” and mocks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “his Vogue photo shoots & his Grammy appearances.” The Gipper must be rolling in his grave.
Instead of standing at the barricades defending Reagan’s principles, his favorite think tank is encouraging Republicans to abandon them — joining the siren song of populists who tell us that the world has changed since Reagan’s day, and that we need to learn what time it is. In his farewell address at the 1992 Republican Convention, Reagan cautioned us to reject that advice and those who “insist that our triumph is yesterday’s news, part of a past that holds no lessons for the future.” He added, “Emerson was right. We are the country of tomorrow. Our revolution did not end at Yorktown.” And the Reagan Revolution did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Reagan understood that it is always time for American leadership. Unfortunately, some on the right have forgotten the lessons he taught us.
The good news is: The American people have not.
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The new catchphrase on the populist right is “what time it is in America.” A conservative who does not know what time it is is supposedly one steeped in the ideological past and out of touch with the current moment in conservative politics — a believer in such antiquated ideals as limited government, strong national defense and American leadership on the world stage.
Well, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute just asked the American people what time it is in America, and the answer was resoundingly clear: It’s time to return to the timeless principles of Ronald Reagan.
In conjunction with the Reagan National Defense Forum, the foundation recently released its annual survey of public opinion on defense and security issues, for which a bipartisan team of researchers interviewed more than 2,500 adults across the country. It found that our most popular president in the past 46 years is Reagan, with a 65 percent approval rating — far outpacing Donald Trump (47 percent) and Joe Biden (38 percent). Not only do Americans still long for Reagan’s infectious optimism and the twinkle in his eye; they also continue to support Reagan’s national security policies.
Solid bipartisan majorities support the “Reagan Doctrine” principle of helping friends and allies defend themselves — specifically, 71 percent support helping Israel, 67 percent support helping Ukraine and 65 percent support helping Taiwan. And an overwhelming 76 percent say it is important for the United States that Ukraine defeats Russia. Americans still agree, as Reagan put it in his 1985 State of the Union address, that “we must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives — on every continent ... to defy ... aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.”
Americans also support Reagan’s principle of “peace through strength.” A 77 percent supermajority wants to increase defense spending. Indeed, more Americans support increased spending on defense than border security. Two-thirds (67 percent) say they are concerned that budget cuts by Congress will reduce the military’s capabilities, and 69 percent are concerned we do not have the defense manufacturing capacity to produce weapons for our national defense.
Americans also want the U.S. military to stand watch on ramparts of freedom. Two-thirds (66 percent) support maintaining our military presence across the globe to deter attacks and respond to emerging threats, while just 28 percent want to reduce our overseas presence. And 79 percent are concerned about rising authoritarianism around the world.
“Forty years after his campaign for re-election,” the Institute points out, Reagan’s “ideas and principles have even greater popularity, and his defense and foreign policy worldview continues to reflect the views of most Americans today.”
What’s most encouraging is that Americans still support Reagan’s ideals despite the fact that few are making the case for them, while a vocal neo-isolationist minority on the right is arguing against them. Sadly, the Heritage Foundation, once keeper of the flame of the Reagan Revolution, is actively opposing Reagan’s national security policies. The Reagan defense buildup? Kevin Roberts, Heritage’s president, recently declared that “defense and non-defense spending must both be on the table” for budget cuts and that “Congress needs to put away its kid gloves and put the Department of Defense and other agencies alike under the knife to excise wasteful spending.” The Reagan Doctrine? Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, is counting a vote in favor of Ukraine aid against Republicans on its scorecard of conservative purity, while Roberts insists that “we have to take care of our interests at home before spending any more money on Ukraine” and mocks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “his Vogue photo shoots & his Grammy appearances.” The Gipper must be rolling in his grave.
Instead of standing at the barricades defending Reagan’s principles, his favorite think tank is encouraging Republicans to abandon them — joining the siren song of populists who tell us that the world has changed since Reagan’s day, and that we need to learn what time it is. In his farewell address at the 1992 Republican Convention, Reagan cautioned us to reject that advice and those who “insist that our triumph is yesterday’s news, part of a past that holds no lessons for the future.” He added, “Emerson was right. We are the country of tomorrow. Our revolution did not end at Yorktown.” And the Reagan Revolution did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Reagan understood that it is always time for American leadership. Unfortunately, some on the right have forgotten the lessons he taught us.
The good news is: The American people have not.
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