While the historic Republican victories in the 1994 midterm elections buoyed conservatives, the rest of the ’90s would be marked by frustration and concerns that conservatism was imperiled thanks to Democrat Bill Clinton’s popularity. This environment created a growing sense of nostalgia for the “Reagan years.”
Conservatives were perhaps most alarmed by Clinton’s ability to shirk responsibility for his ethical foibles, as well as by the sense that they were losing the broader culture wars during the ’90s. For activists, Reagan was a crucial part of the solution. If they could get Americans to recognize him as one of the great presidents, worthy of a place alongside Lincoln and Washington, his policies would be viewed as part of the foundation of the country and, therefore, as less assailable. To create this sort of aura, they undertook fawning campaigns to immortalize Reagan and name iconic national sites after the former president.
From campaigns at Mount Rushmore to “Put Ron on the Rock” to the controversial renaming of “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,” no accolade was deemed too ambitious by Reagan’s supporters. They paid particular attention to places where the “great presidents” are found, including on U.S. currency and the Mall in Washington.
While couched in language about paying proper respects to the ailing Reagan, who retreated from public life after receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994, the campaign to immortalize him dovetailed with efforts to further his political ideas. The “Contract with America” that had animated the House Republican campaign in 1994 borrowed heavily from Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union address, including pledges to lower taxes, shrink the size of government and reduce government bureaucracy, all issues associated with Reagan.
The nostalgia for Reagan that permeated the right during this period, which intensified after Bob Dole failed to capture the White House in 1996, was first and foremost about safeguarding and promoting these policy ideas. Nowhere was this clearer than in one of the most significant efforts to memorialize Reagan, which emerged in 1997. Conservative activist Grover Norquist launched the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project with the objective of putting a marker to Reagan in every county across the United States, amounting to roughly 3,200 places of commemoration.
This was a highly partisan and political effort: Norquist observed that memorializations of John F. Kennedy abounded: “Ronald Reagan’s legacy is at least as powerful as John F. Kennedy’s, his greatness is at least as identifiable as John F. Kennedy’s, so we should be looking for the same number of things named after Reagan as Kennedy.” At the time, Kennedy’s name adorned nearly 600 sites, while just 12 things were named after Reagan. Norquist cared about more than just equal recognition for a Republican hero, though. He understood that his was a project about future power, admitting that “if you want to contend for the future, you have to contend for the public understanding of the past.”