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The Gipper’s Quarter-Century

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Jayson at Polipundit reminds us that today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s landslide defeat of Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election.
No wonder that Democrat has been so crabby and classless lately.
But, today we should not dwell on that defeated Democrat’s venom, but instead remember the vision and optimism of the greatest president of the second half of the twentieth century. Thank you, Ronald Reagan.
And we’ll remember you just as you wanted:

Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”

Today, not only do we thank Ronald Reagan, but also the American people for having the good sense to vote him into office two times with a majority of the popular vote.
UPDATE: Over at Best of the Web, James Taranto reminds us that twenty-five years ago today, “on Nov. 4, 1980, America began to reverse its decline by electing a man who shared the country’s faith in itself.” I agree.

The president’s failure to follow the Gipper’s vision of federalism

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My friend David Boaz has recently published an excellent piece on federalism where he contends that even though Republicans control both the White House and Congress, they

have forgotten their longstanding commitment to reduce federal power and intrusiveness and return many governmental functions to the states. Instead, they have taken to using their newfound power to impose their own ideas on the whole country.

David does an excellent job of outlining how present-day conservatives have ignored the Gipper’s commitment to federalism. I encourage you to read the whole thing. David sees this move away from federalism “most notoriously” in the proposal to amend the constitution to “ban gay marriage in all 50 states.” The president himself seems conflicted on the issue, at one time, backing this amendment, but later saying that civil unions “should be left up to the states”
I agree with the president on the latter point: let the states, through their elected legislatures and through the referendum process, decide on civil unions. We are already seeing a great variety of proposals to recognize gay unions from court-mandated marriage in Massachusetts, to the court-mandated legislative enactment of civil unions in Vermont, to legislative enactment (without judicial coercion) of civl unions in Connecticut and domestic partnerships in California. And now some conservatives in Oregon are considering “reciprocal benefits” for unmarried adults.
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