By Steven T. Jones
As the Republican presidential candidates debate one another tonight (Thursday), they’re all likely to try to position themselves as “Reagan conservatives,” as distinguished from the corrupt and incompetent conservatism of George W. Bush. Republican political operatives have worked hard to transform Ronald Reagan into a mythically important figure that brought conservatism into the political mainstream and saved the country from the commies. More recently, they have worked to de-link conservatism from the failed Bush presidency, even though W has pushed more consistently conservative policies than the hallowed Reagan.
Enter Campaign for America’s Future, which has kicked off its The Big Con project to argue that conservatism has failed in the U.S. In a conference call with reporters this morning, the campaign laid out its strategy for convincing Americans that they’ve been fooled and lied to and that the most serious problems facing the country are caused by conservatism.