The false memory of an immaculate Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Is Donald Trump a continuation of the postwar conservative movement — or its executioner? A year after his electoral defeat, scholars, journalists, and pundits continue to debate the former president's place in a lineage that extends back to Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and beyond.

In a recent essay for The Atlantic, David Brooks makes the case that Trump broke the conservative mold. Reporting from the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Brooks argues Trump "destroyed the Reagan Republican paradigm in 2016." He doesn't define the phrase, but "Reagan Republican" seems to mean the combination of avuncular manners, optimistic rhetoric, and free-market policy with which Reagan is associated.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.