The `Reagan Revolution'
The Reagan Revolution isn't and never was. Yet it remains a standard reference point in Washington political analysis and reporting. Its invention and survival illustrate just how mediocre much political journalism is: simplistic, lacking in historical perspective and often wrong. The first job of journalism is to "get it right" - to be accurate. All too often, political reporting doesn't. It amounts to mythmaking.</br></br>I take as my text for this grumpy thesis two recent articles in powerful publications. Both try to explain President Clinton's troubles and successes in terms of the alleged Reagan Revolution. Both exemplify persisting sins of political journalism, which is often a triumph of slogans over facts. Politics is viewed, as James Reston often wrote, as sport. The object of reporting is to explain who wins, who loses, why and what it means.</br></br>The trouble is that politics is not just a game - a series of electoral and legislative contests - but also an expression of national habits and values. Unless these are understood, politics can't be adequately reported. Much political commentary ignores this larger context. Consider a front-page "news analysis" in the New York Times on Aug. 1. Titled "Reagan's Curse on Clinton," it attributed Clinton's difficulty in passing his budget to "the Presidency of Ronald Reagan and the political climate he created."</br></br>Wrote R. W. Apple Jr., the Times' Washington bureau chief: "Mr. Reagan successfully argued that government itself was the problem. Most federal programs were bad; taxes were bad; spending was bad... . {The result is that} politicians are terrified to wear that awful label, `tax and spend,' however much their constituents need government money for health care or roads."</br></br>Every trend or change must be credited to or blamed on somebody. What's missed are deeper currents in American thinking and society. Reagan didn't create the mood that Apple describes. Americans have always been suspicious of concentrated power, and national government is - for better or worse - now our most powerful institution. Even in 1958, 43 percent of Americans felt that the federal government "wasted a lot" of money.