In a year where there are more Reagan emulators than Elvis invokers, it might be nice to have a few facts ready to set the record straight, when some acquaintance tries to tell you that X (Thompson/Brownback/Giuliani/Huckerbee) is the "new Ronald Reagan."
This isn't an effort to speak ill of the dead. In fact, Reagan the person has a wife and adult kids of vastly different political persuasions who all think highly of him, and that should be a great legacy for any person.
But the mythological Reagan is far different from the man, and worth examining.
The first meme that is generally dragged out to support the Reagan mythos is his "defeat of the evil empire"--the Soviet Union. In fact, the Soviet Union collapsed of a degenerate economic system. And Reagan's blustering did nothing to hasten it along (although the fact that we had the ability to outspend the Soviets by many times arming ourselves didn't help them with their infrastructure.) Young Russians who began to see what we had and they didn't weren't ready to tolerate party propaganda any more. It's easier to argue that the Beatles brought down the Soviet Union than that Reagan did.
And did it lead to world peace? Remember the 1986 transfer of missiles to Iran (in exchange for holding the hostages just long enough for Reagan to defeat Carter in the election?)
In 1985, while Iran and Iraq were at war, Iran made a secret request to buy weapons from the United States...in spite of the embargo against selling arms to Iran... Reagan was driven by a(n)...obsession...While shipping arms to Iran violated the embargo, dealing with terrorists violated Reagan's campaign promise never to do so. Reagan had always been admired for his honesty...With the backing of the president, the plan progressed. By the time the sales were discovered, more than 1,500 missiles had been shipped to Iran. Three hostages had been released, only to be replaced with three more, in what Secretary of State George Shultz called "a hostage bazaar."
Pardons?
Speculation about the involvement of Reagan, Vice President George Bush and the administration at large ran rampant. Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh investigated the affair for the next eight years. Fourteen people were charged with either operational or "cover-up" crimes. In the end, North's conviction was overturned on a technicality, and President Bush issued six pardons, including one to McFarlane, who had already been convicted, and one to Weinberger before he stood trial...Although laws had been broken, and Reagan's image suffered as a result of Iran-Contra, his popularity rebounded.
It can be argued that Reagan was the "father of global warming"--at least from the perspective of America's malevolent neglect of the topic. From the June 28 issue of Rolling Stone
Back in the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter attempted to level the playing field by creating incentives and minimal subsidies to jump-start clean fuels in the marketplace. But then Ronald Reagan took office and ordered to solar panels that Carter had installed on the White House roof torn off. He rolled back fuel standards for automobiles, killed federal incentives that had given America a commanding lead in wind and solar power, and doubled our oil imports. Reagan's efforts fueled the current oil addiction that has us acting like a crack-house junkie rolling old ladies for drug money...
And finally, Reagan (or at least his administration) is widely accused of neglecting the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the extent that it grew out of control in this nation.
Reagan virtually spat on people with AIDS throughout his presidency. The epidemic began under his watch, and he ensured that it would ultimately kill millions.
Despite the fact that the disease had been identified in 1978, Reagan refused to utter the word or acknowledge the problem. Here's a quote from the AP in 1985:
Even though he labels AIDS research a top administration priority, President Reagan has only spoken out once about the deadly disease, and then only when prompted by reporters, says Rep. Gerry E. Studds, the only acknowledged homosexual in Congress.
"... The president said last night it is one of the top priorities of the last four years," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Wednesday. "Under those circumstances, it is more than a little difficult to imagine why he has never mentioned it once before in public...
This is a major national public health crisis," Studds said. "There are medical authorities who think it is one of the very worst we have faced in a very long time."
Why is Reagan so idolized? I think it's the ultimate achievement of the backroom power brokers who want to continue to run our government--canonizing a man who loved the spotlight, loved to act, but didn't really want to do anything hard or controversial beyond a small list of personal priorities. Sound familiar?
I've read many diaries here suggesting Bush wrote an executive order which might enable him to remain in the Presidency. Frankly, I think that's total nonsense (unless the backroom government were sure that John Edwards was the odds-on favorite.) Rather, I think that the Reagan regalia is intended to make the average American nostalgic for another big daddy president. Bush was a good puppet, but they now see their mistake--he was too young, and got uppity ideas of his own. Bring on Fred Thompson.
So this isn't a diary on ancient history. I'd like to challenge anyone to tell me what was good about the Reagan presidency.