There is no more unifying figure in the history of the modern conservative movement than President Ronald Reagan. Virtually every conservative attempts to claim the mantle of Reagan, from isolationists to interventionists, from debt hawks to tax cutters, from libertarians to religious traditionalists. Everyone finds something to love about the most successful president of the last half century.
Our next author, former attorney general Edwin Meese, explains the legacy of the greatest president of the twentieth century. He tells Reagan’s story from close observation, having worked with him for many years and eventually serving in his presidential cabinet.
Meese tells of Reagan’s extensive reading of the canons of conservatism—Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, Chambers’s Witness, Human Events, and National Review. Through his reading and studying, Reagan gradually formed the core of a philosophy that would carry him to the presidency. He also believed that our founding philosophy provided a path toward prosperity, growth, and individual happiness.
Standing up to communism was central to Reagan’s administration and its legacy. Reagan began calling the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and “the focus of evil in the modern world,” which focused America on the importance of containing and defeating communism. Russian author and dissident Natan Sharansky, imprisoned by the Soviets for his political opposition, would later tell of how he and his fellow prisoners in the gulag rejoiced when they heard of Reagan’s speech.
Reagan’s discourse and decisive policy changes revived the American economy and spirit, and he gave hope to people around the world. Even years after his death, Reagan’s legacy lives on in the continuing debate between the various wings of conservatism—wings that he united and forged into a victorious coalition.
Edwin Meese III, the prominent conservative leader, thinker, and elder statesman, serves as the Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Emeritus. He spent much of his adult life working for Ronald Reagan, first when Reagan was elected California governor in 1966 and then when he sought and won the presidency in 1980. From 1981 to 1985, General Meese served as counselor to the president and functioned as Reagan’s chief policy adviser. He then served as the seventy-fifth attorney general of the United States from 1985 to 1988. From 2001 to 2013, General Meese was chairman of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, which now bears his name in recognition of his contributions to the rule of law and the nation’s understanding of constitutional law.