The Idea Man

Ronald W. Reagan

Yesterday, I wrote a post about ideas.  I got to thinking about how that related to politics in my lifetime and I wondered how our recent presidents rated in the arena of ideas.

The converse, of course, is how much they rely on issue-driven agendas.

For me, this is an interesting question.  It requires a fair amount of thought because I don't want to be biased about it.

I think, though, that Ronald Reagan was the most idea-driven president in my lifetime.  I say that because his basic thinking about the world was set in the early 1960's and he never strayed from that.  In 1964 he gave a televised speech in support of then presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.  From that time forward, it was always referred to as "The Speech."  It is said that all of his speeches from then on were variations of The Speech.

Barak H. Obama

Reagan never much cared for what the polls had to say on any given issue while he was in office.  His conviction, based upon his principles, was that he was right, and, if Americans didn't agree with him, then it was his fault (and the fault of his surrogates) for not explaining it better.  He was sure that he could make people understand his reasoning because, to him, it made perfect sense.

Coming in second, in my humble opinion, is Barack Obama.  It is clear that Obama operates from a set of ideas without regard to polls.  The big difference between Obama and Reagan is that their ideas are polar opposites.  Another difference is that Obama has a penchant for seizing upon events or issues to further his ideological agenda.  Reagan never did that.  Reagan would explain himself, but he wouldn't seize upon the news of the day to make ideological pleas.

William J. Clinton

I think that the most issue-driven president was Bill Clinton.  Clinton was a master of metamorphosis.  If the wind changed, he could make us believe that it was his idea.  When he looked around and saw people heading the other direction, he would magically transport himself to the head of that line and proclaim that they were all still following him.  It was truly brilliant, ya know, in an evil villain sort of way.

When Newt Gingrich held up funding for Clinton's proposed agenda and didn't budge, Clinton adopted The House's budget as his own and congratulated The House on the wisdom they displayed by following his lead.  I tell ya, the guy was a political wizard.

Donald J. Trump

That brings me to the issue of our president-elect.  How does he rate on this scale?  At this point, I'm not really sure.  From what I can tell, he seems to be more issue-driven.  I'm not saying that he doesn't have principles, for I'm certain that he does, but he's more of a pragmatist than an ideologue.  Pragmatism is at the heart of deal making, and he loves to make deals.  Whether or not Trump turns out to be a good president, it is certain that he will use issues of the day to comment on American culture as he sees it.

Ideologically yours,

TheCurmudgeon