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People across the country, especially those online and in the media, are trying to come to terms with “Reagan” now that the 100th anniversary of his birth has come and gone. This is a good thing, because the Republicans and the right are trying to make him into some sort of secular god. They project anything they want on the myth of Reagan and then tell the world they want the same things that this wonderful president did.
The fact is that Reagan’s presidency was one of the few successful presidencies of the 20th century. By successful, I mean successful in the largest sense. He managed to survive the experience with his reputation better than when he came in (with most Americans) and without major scandal (Iran-Contra was a big one that might have seen another president impeached, but it didn’t deal a body blow to Reagan or his administration).
We had no new wars while he was president, even though we invaded the tiny island of Grenada, bombed Kadafi in his tent city and got hundreds of Marines killed in Lebanon. We had astronauts and a teacher blown up in space, but no one blamed Reagan. Because of his genial personality, no one blamed Reagan for much of anything. Perhaps because Reagan came into power and the presidency by being a war loving, hardliner, he was free to not make war to prove his standing, unlike the Bush father and son team.
Reagan was an ex-movie star, an ex-union president who helped to destroy the power of unions while he was president, a corporate spokesman and pitchman, a two term governor of California and a person who sought the presidency from 1968 through 1980, when he finally won it.
If Reagan were in the presidency today, I think he would be working to reverse some of the policies he put in place in the ‘80s. Mainly I believe this because he was a decent man, a part of the fabric of America. He was born in ordinary circumstances and got very lucky in life at a time when it did not seem impossible for a kid from the upper midwest to make it big in movies. Reagan, by the standards of the greats of his era, never made it really big, but he made it big enough to have a career and last as a minor star for a long time.
Reagan was capable of seeing the world from the perspective of the less fortunate, but he was surrounded in his movie and political years by people and advisors who were not. He was permanently ticked off about the high tax rates he paid as a rich actor and that made him easy bait for those who wanted to cut taxes on all of the wealthy. The result is that we have astoundingly large deficits and now those who call themselves conservative want to use those deficits to accomplish one of their long term goals, reducing the Federal government to an irrelevancy. By cutting taxes again and again on the wealthy, the right has ensured we would get into a deep mess and now they say they have the cure for what they largely created. Is this a great country or what?
Reagan grew into manhood in a far, far simpler time in America. Even the period when he was president was, in comparison, a Normal Rockwell painting when viewed against the problems we face today. A man who was not deeply interested in any of the details of the government he headed, he preferred simple solutions. People like this. It is comforting and supports the idea that things are not so complicated that ordinary people can’t handle the complexities.
Reagan might not have much cared about the impact on the poor and the middle class when he signed legislation as president. He had a general orientation as a politician, but he trusted his advisors to most of the details. If he were alive today, I believe he would care now and would be repulsed by some of the results. While he was in office, he gave no evidence of being able to think ahead to what his administration was actually doing to ordinary people .
I, for one, am a bit sick of the right constantly braying the name Reagan. As soon as he left office, the Republicans started a myth making machine around his name, in part to counter the same thing that Democrats had done for decades to the name Franklin Roosevelt and the murdered John Kennedy. They needed a hero of their own and they were determine to make one, even if they had to streeeeetch the truth about Reagan.
Those who followed Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, didn’t do so well with his legacy or his policies. What we needed was what every period needs, a redefining of myths and facts into substance for a new age. Despite his B-movie status, there was something about Reagan that made many people believe him and believe in him. This could hardly be said of the Republicans who have since lived in the White House.
The need to constantly invoke the name Reagan shows to some extent the inability of a current generation of Republicans to lead on their own. They are trying to show deep authenticity where little is available from their own records or public personalities. We are deep in an era of phony people being transformed into phony candidates in both parties. Over the weekend, Mitt Romney was loudly joking about “Obamacare” with not so sly putdowns, even though much of the program was modeled on what Romney supported and pushed through in Massachusetts. Is that’s not as phony as a three dollar bill, what is?
I say this to Republicans: shut up about Reagan. You are talking to an entire generation of people who don’t know what he was outside of a high school history book. Anyone under 30, at best, has only a foggy memory of “The Gipper”. If you have something to say, say it. Translate your burbling words into what you want to do for the country and some people might stop to consider you. Only the Republican faithful and the far right care any more about Reagan.
Doug Terry, 2.15.11
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