WASHINGTON — Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday anniversary was celebrated yesterday, is remembered as a transformative president, the creator of the contemporary Republican Party, and the very definition of conservatism.
Reagan, who died in 2004, is the object of both mythmaking and revisionism. As his presidency has undergone examination and reevaluation by conservative and liberal scholars, his place in history has grown larger. But he remains both misunderstood by some of his followers and underappreciated by his detractors.
Reagan's iconic stature among conservatives is a source of inspiration for a Republican Party that, despite its victories in November, still hungers to recapture the high points of his presidency. Yet to many Republicans, "Reagan nostalgia'' is an obstacle to the party's hopes of moving forward in an era with challenges different from those of the 1980s.
Although Reagan helped fuel the conservative ascendancy, he was not, in the estimation of scholars, a conventional conservative, certainly not by today's standards.
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