Republican · 1981–1989
Ronald Reagan
Tax cuts, a defense buildup, the air-traffic controllers’ strike, and a socially conservative coalition.
Ronald Reagan was president 1981–1989. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Tax cuts, a defense buildup, the air-traffic controllers’ strike, and a socially conservative coalition.
The dot is economics +64 and authority +40. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: Cut taxes, rebuild defense, and limit government. The evil empire would be opposed. Done: Taxes were cut, then partly raised. Defense grew. The welfare state was not repealed. The Soviet negotiation came in the second term. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are George W. Bush (2001–2009, +38 / +46) and Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929, +58 / +10). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.