I often hear and read from conservatives glowing appraisals of the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan. Anyone who runs for the Republican nomination for president wants everyone in the GOP to believe he’s the new Reagan. Below are my thoughts, both good and bad, about the life and times of Ronald Reagan.
Reagan emerged in the political arena by making an impassioned speech supporting Barry Goldwater during the 1964 Republican convention, back in the days when Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater girl. I never heard the speech, so I can’t judge it, either in the context in which it was delivered or from the present vantage point. But that speech did two things. For those who listened and liked it, it propelled Reagan into the California governor’s race, which he won in 1966. For those who weren’t paying attention, including me, it forever linked Reagan and Goldwater, and the latter was rejected in the 1964 presidential election by 45 of the 50 states. Ronald Reagan was therefore viewed as a John Bircher, an ideological extremist, who couldn’t be trusted with practical matters. That’s what Republicans thought of Reagan. What liberal Democrats thought of him was entirely venomous. Moderate Democrats (now an extinct species) would eventually vote for him, but liberals always have and always will regard Reagan as the boogie man, worse for them than Richard Nixon.
My point here is that no one else in American political history has ever overcome being considered too extreme, even by most of his political party, in the way Reagan did, so much so that he is lionized constantly by Republicans today. There has been a lot of talk through the years about Reagan Democrats, but people forget that it’s really quite remarkable that there are even Reagan Republicans. I was so skeptical about Reagan that in spite of being a Republican, I voted to re-elect a miserable failure of a president in 1980, rather than voting for Reagan. I didn’t want anyone following Ronald Reagan around with the nuclear football, because I thought bombing really would begin in five minutes.
Once he was in the White House, Reagan won me over. He was very good at communicating simple truths. We all knew the Soviet Union was an evil empire, and once we realized Reagan would act prudently, we didn’t mind him saying so out loud.
When Reagan cut taxes, I lost my fear of “voodoo economics”, because things got better instead of worse.
I thought Reagan was going to get a bunch of people killed when he fired the air traffic controllers for going on strike, but it turned out he was right. Other people stepped in and performed their jobs admirably.
In many ways, Reagan was better than advertised. He had a gift for seeing possibilities others had given up on, meeting with Lec Wolessa and Pope John Paul II, and outspending the Soviets on defense, until the Soviet economy collapsed and they could no longer retain their grip on eastern Europe.
He defined his legacy with four simple words, “tear down this wall.” It was what most of us wanted, but Reagan dared to say so publicly, instead of clinging to diplomatic niceties, and Reagan was instrumental in the wall’s collapse, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.
Conservatives love to speak endlessly about Reagan, as the 20th century’s Abraham Lincoln, a man who emancipated half a continent. Historians may differ about what share of the credit belongs to Reagan, but even his critics will find it hard not to acknowledge his contribution.
However, there are some dark corners of the Reagan legacy, which conservatives ought to acknowledge. I’m going to skip the Iran-Contra scandal. Some Democrats managed to care about it, but I never did.
President Reagan failed in three areas. In the MIddle East, he failed to support Israel’s bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq, and he opposed the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, actions which I believe were necessary for Israel’s survival. Anyone who disagrees about Lebanon should remember the Lebanese civil war which was happening there before the Israelis arrived, and what has been taking place in Lebanon since they left. In my view, Reagan failed to support Israel, as he should have.
More importantly, he left our Marines in a vulnerable position at the Beirut airport, and 240 of them were killed by a single suicide bomber. Of course, President Reagan was only guilty of a lack of foresight; the terrorists themselves were guilty of murder. After that, the Reagan administration essentially abandoned the Middle East, hoping Arabs would send us oil, but leave us alone. No matter what anyone thinks of the current administration, it’s not realistic to suppose we can import large amounts of oil from the Middle East, but the nations there will leave us alone. Perhaps no one accuses Reagan of being a failure in the Middle East, because it’s nearly impossible to be successful in that part of the world. Nevertheless, those who constantly tell us Reagan was a genius with regard to the Soviet Union should acknowledge that his foreign policy was far less effective elsewhere.
It was Ronald Reagan who gave us the original 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens. If it was supposed to stem the tide of illegal immigration, it failed miserably. Like all other recent American presidents, President Reagan failed to defend American sovereignty, and his failure has helped lead us to the current situation, in which our border guards are attacked at least 20 times a week. Conservatives who are disaffected with President Bush with regard to immigration should remember that he is carrying part of Reagan’s legacy forward.
Finally, President Reagan was personally an eloquent advocate for the rights of the unborn. But it was Reagan who made the politically expedient appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. Throughout her decades on the court, she was the decisive vote on abortion cases, and she always voted to continue to slaughter babies. Of course, she may not have become the sort of Supreme Court justice Reagan wanted, but he was responsible for her appointment. It was a terrible mistake which cost millions of lives.
I liked Ronald Reagan, I believe he was a good man and one of our better presidents. But he was as human as I am, and we humans fail constantly. I am not looking for a new Reagan, I’m looking for the return of Christ. When he returns, he’ll make even the best parts of the Reagan legacy look pretty pitiful by comparison, and perhaps my efforts will look pretty pitiful too. Even so, amen.
