George W. Bush recently told Bob Woodward that history’s judgement of his presidency doesn’t matter to him, because he’ll be dead. If he’s right, history can commence judgement of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, but Mr. Bush is wrong, at least in Mr. Reagan’s case. He may be dead, but it’s too soon to draw a complete picture of his presidency, his 16 years in the shadows notwithstanding. Too many things he set in motion have yet to come to rest. There’s an eerie sense of time warp this week, as the Reagan retrospectives share the same broadsheet with current news. Readers can be forgiven if we momentarily lose track of which was then and which is now.
In current news, Mr. Bush wants to move John Negroponte from the UN to the embassy in Baghdad. In the Reagan 80s, Mr. Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras and sponsor of the Contras, shielding Mr. Reagan’s illegal war from congressional scrutiny. His co-conspirator Elliott Abrams is back in the executive branch and until recently, Iran/Contra mastermind and whack job John Poindexter was hiding somewhere in the Pentagon. National goody two-shoes Colin Powell was on the Reagan team, too.
Want to excoriate Ahmed Chalabi for getting too cozy with Iran? Ron Reagan sent the ayatollahs an inscribed Bible and a cake shaped like a key and – more important – sold them military supplies for their war against Iraq. Mr. Reagan sold weapons to Iraq, too. It was he who sent Don Rumsfeld to his famous meet ’n greet with Saddam.
Twenty years ago, Reagan Republicans drove around with bumper stickers that read, “Trust the Soviets? Ask the Afghans.” The word Afghans had drops of blood falling from the letters. Mr. Reagan funded those brave mujahedeen, those freedom fighters who have morphed into al Quaeda. They believe they destroyed the USSR, they think the US is next. Thanks, Ron.
George W. Bush is another philosophical son of Ronald Reagan. With his war secrets, disdain for the Constitution, class warfare and throbbing deficits, Mr. Bush is far more like Mr. Reagan than George H. W. Bush, the patrician scrivener of thank-you notes. Where Mr. Reagan imagined “morning in America,” George W. gives us “High Noon” in Baghdad. Mr. Reagan used the ill-gotten profits from his Iranian arms sales to pay off his client-state totalitarians, nun rapists and peasant torturers. Mr. Bush has his sex crimes and torture committed directly by American soldiers. We’ve moved significantly along depravity’s path in 20 years, it’s fearsome to consider where we might be in 20 more.
Ronald Reagan’s frenzied followers dash about trying to put his name or face on schools, highways, airports, currency and Mt. Rushmore. That will fade. Take away the man himself – the actor’s timing, his ability to play to the camera and deliver a line – and what remains are his words and deeds; future generations will find little to commemorate in them. It’s worth noting that Mohandas Gandhi was not long on his pyre nor Martin Luther King long in his grave than people who did not share their goals tried to co-opt their legacies. The right will try to steal the mantle of dead leftists, but the left never tries to steal the mantle of the dead right. Imagine Dennis Kucinich trying to invoke J. Edgar Hoover or Barry Goldwater.
Mr. Reagan died at 93. He was six years older than Jack Kennedy. The Oval Office froze one man in youth, the other in perpetual senior citizenship. Right on cue, Mr. Reagan died as another presidential campaign moves from simmer to boil. Look for Reagan nostalgia in the months ahead. Republicans will ask the faithful to “win one for the Gipper,” but upon meeting George Bush in debate, John Kerry is sure to ask America, “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was?”
Reagan Lives
George W. Bush recently told Bob Woodward that history’s judgement of his presidency doesn’t matter to him, because he’ll be dead. If he’s right, history can commence judgement of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, but Mr. Bush is wrong, at least in Mr. Reagan’s case. He may be dead, but it’s too soon to draw a complete picture of his presidency, his 16 years in the shadows notwithstanding. Too many things he set in motion have yet to come to rest. There’s an eerie sense of time warp this week, as the Reagan retrospectives share the same broadsheet with current news. Readers can be forgiven if we momentarily lose track of which was then and which is now.
In current news, Mr. Bush wants to move John Negroponte from the UN to the embassy in Baghdad. In the Reagan 80s, Mr. Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras and sponsor of the Contras, shielding Mr. Reagan’s illegal war from congressional scrutiny. His co-conspirator Elliott Abrams is back in the executive branch and until recently, Iran/Contra mastermind and whack job John Poindexter was hiding somewhere in the Pentagon. National goody two-shoes Colin Powell was on the Reagan team, too.
Want to excoriate Ahmed Chalabi for getting too cozy with Iran? Ron Reagan sent the ayatollahs an inscribed Bible and a cake shaped like a key and – more important – sold them military supplies for their war against Iraq. Mr. Reagan sold weapons to Iraq, too. It was he who sent Don Rumsfeld to his famous meet ’n greet with Saddam.
Twenty years ago, Reagan Republicans drove around with bumper stickers that read, “Trust the Soviets? Ask the Afghans.” The word Afghans had drops of blood falling from the letters. Mr. Reagan funded those brave mujahedeen, those freedom fighters who have morphed into al Quaeda. They believe they destroyed the USSR, they think the US is next. Thanks, Ron.
George W. Bush is another philosophical son of Ronald Reagan. With his war secrets, disdain for the Constitution, class warfare and throbbing deficits, Mr. Bush is far more like Mr. Reagan than George H. W. Bush, the patrician scrivener of thank-you notes. Where Mr. Reagan imagined “morning in America,” George W. gives us “High Noon” in Baghdad. Mr. Reagan used the ill-gotten profits from his Iranian arms sales to pay off his client-state totalitarians, nun rapists and peasant torturers. Mr. Bush has his sex crimes and torture committed directly by American soldiers. We’ve moved significantly along depravity’s path in 20 years, it’s fearsome to consider where we might be in 20 more.
Ronald Reagan’s frenzied followers dash about trying to put his name or face on schools, highways, airports, currency and Mt. Rushmore. That will fade. Take away the man himself – the actor’s timing, his ability to play to the camera and deliver a line – and what remains are his words and deeds; future generations will find little to commemorate in them. It’s worth noting that Mohandas Gandhi was not long on his pyre nor Martin Luther King long in his grave than people who did not share their goals tried to co-opt their legacies. The right will try to steal the mantle of dead leftists, but the left never tries to steal the mantle of the dead right. Imagine Dennis Kucinich trying to invoke J. Edgar Hoover or Barry Goldwater.
Mr. Reagan died at 93. He was six years older than Jack Kennedy. The Oval Office froze one man in youth, the other in perpetual senior citizenship. Right on cue, Mr. Reagan died as another presidential campaign moves from simmer to boil. Look for Reagan nostalgia in the months ahead. Republicans will ask the faithful to “win one for the Gipper,” but upon meeting George Bush in debate, John Kerry is sure to ask America, “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was?”
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004