REAGAN'S CONVERSION. Rick Perlstein has a great article exploring Ronald Reagan's "lost decade," the period between the 1950s and 1960s in which his conversion from liberal to conservative took place. Apparently, Reagan came under the influence of a corporate propagandist with the comically diabolical name of Lemuel Ricketts Boulware. Essentially, Boulware created and popularized a free market indoctrination course within General Electric with the explicit aim of challenging union dominance of hearts and, particularly, minds. He sent out pamphlets extolling GE's virtues and attacking unions, encouraged managers to read The National Review, and created book clubs where workers studied foundation free market texts. Reagan, whose job included lecturing to these workers, thought it important he be conversant in the literature they were studying, and the literature convinced him. I'm always fascinated by tales like this, and the history of the conservative movement is rife with them. A simply stunning number of institutions arose in the 40s and 50s that did nothing but disseminate and popularize books setting out the conservative economic worldview to the country. The focus was, quite literally, on creating conservatives. Not Republicans, not GOP voters, but ideologues of a certain brand and style, whose foundational world view, rather than mere partisan allegiance, would be aligned with the movement. Liberals in this day and age, despite facing a moment not altogether dissimilar from mid-century conservatives, have not embarked on on similar educational strategy. Indeed, the books most likely to be publicized by progressives are partisan tracts laying out the case against the Bush administration or the Republican Party, not explications of the liberal worldview and persuasive literature arguing for its adoption. I can't even think of many books written for popular consumption that attempt to provide such a rigorous education. So what we've got, particularly right now, is a lot of people who understand why they hate Bush without knowing precisely why the progressive outlook is a stronger, more durable, more effective ideology than its competitors. So what you get -- best case -- are partisan victories, not movement triumphs. --Ezra Klein
