{"id":566909,"date":"2026-04-06T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/566909\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:21:11","slug":"maga-in-context-panel-examines-the-history-and-future-of-conservatism-in-the-united-states-the-crimson-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/566909\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018MAGA In Context\u2019 panel examines the history and future of conservatism in the United States \u2013 The Crimson White"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marcus<\/a> <\/p>\n

Marcus Witcher, author of \u201cGetting Right with Reagan: The Struggle of for True Conservatism, 1980-2016\u201d, speaks at MAGA in Context event<\/p>\n

The UA Department of Political Science hosted three authors to examine the historical and modern factors shaping America\u2019s conservative movement at the \u201cMAGA in Context: The Past and Present of the American Right\u201d panel discussion on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Moderated by George Hawley, an associate professor of political science, the panel included authors Stephanie Slade, Marcus Witcher and Laura Field.<\/p>\n

Slade, senior editor of Reason Magazine<\/a> and author of \u201cFusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right,\u201d highlighted a turning point in the conservative movement when questions arose after World War II about what it meant to be a conservative.<\/p>\n

She said the answer many conservatives came up with was the desire to preserve the \u201cprinciples and institutions of the founding,\u201d which she saidclaimed were, in many ways, liberal ideologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the modern era, what we\u2019ve had in this country is that the conservatives are the ones who are actually in favor of what any other part of the world would be called economic liberalism,\u201d Slade said.<\/p>\n

Slade also saidclaimed that fusionism, the combination of liberty and virtue, both traditionally conservative and libertarian values, is \u201cnecessary to human flourishing and a good society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witcher, author of \u201cGetting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016,\u201d and a teaching assistant professor of economic history at West Virginia University, said that he believes that Ronald Reagan is the \u201cpolitical embodiment of fusionism,\u201d and Witcher highlighted the differences between Donald Trump and Reagan as presidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne man is humble\u2026I would argue, Reagan was pretty humble,\u201d Witcher said. \u201cAnd one man is the most braggadocious person that has probably ever held the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he also highlighted economic similarities between the two presidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Trump and Reagan argued that taxes need to be reduced to improve the American economy,\u201d Witcher said. \u201cIn contrast to Reagan, who granted amnesty to about 3 million undocumented immigrants\u2026Trump has used legal and illegal means to try to decrease illegal and legal immigration to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act,\u00a0 granting amnesty and legal status to roughly 3 million<\/a> undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration violated the law by ending the immigration status of roughly 900,000<\/a> immigrants who were granted status during President Biden\u2019s term through a parole program called CBP One.<\/p>\n

Witcher said he believes that the main difference between Reagan and Trump comes with their behavior and treatment of political opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize that your generation has not seen a functioning government or political apparatus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Field, author of \u201cFurious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right,\u201d and senior advisor for the illiberalism studies program at George Washington University, explains the \u201ccoalescence of what [she calls] the MAGA new right during the first Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she believes that the \u201cintellectuals of the conservative movement\u201d have implemented policies such as Project 2025, the Trump administration\u2019s blueprint<\/a> for his term as president, and policies in red states nationwide.<\/p>\n

Field said she believes that with the shift in demographics and representation of minorities in the 21st century, there seems to be \u201ca lot of resentment among white middle-class people for their loss of status with changing demographics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Witcher, author of \u201cGetting Right with Reagan: The Struggle of for True Conservatism, 1980-2016\u201d, speaks at MAGA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-566909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}