Reagan Legacy (2)
Another example of Reagan’s myth making was that more people were living below the poverty line, and homelessness became a national concern because they had released many people in mental hospitals. When Mr. Reagan was asked about the problem in 1984, he replied that some needy people might be "homeless by choice." Yeah right. And people get sick by choice, they are poor by choice, and on and on. By sheer force of his personality, he got away with such nonsense.
In foreign policy, before the Iran-contra scandal broke, the biggest setback was the bombing in Lebannon that killed 241 Americans. We hear all kinds of rhetoric today about not “cutting and running” but that’s exactly what Reagan did. He pulled them out in 4 months. And, to get the minds of the public off from this topic, he invaded Grenada. For conservatives, they built up the myth that this was a great military victory, but really, it was the equivalent of the largest army in the world overtaking 12 guys with shovels. It did, of course, make conservatives proud, and served its real purpose – to help us forget what happened in Lebanon.
Then came Iran-contra, where Reagan’s staff set up a secret plans to supply weapons to Iran as ransom for US hostages, and the sales were transferred to the “contras” whose human rights violation were notorious, but that didn’t stop him from indulging in the myth that they were “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.” I don’t think anybody has insulted our founding fathers as badly, but Reagan got away with it.
At first Reagan denied that we traded arms for hostages and appointed sleaze-bag Ed Meese to investigate. He later resigned in scandal. And also later, Reagan essentially admitted he had lied about this incident, "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true," he said, "but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
And then he had the courage to say something that Dubya never will, he admitted accountability and came clean by saying that what started as a strategic opening to Iran had "deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages." He said, "This runs contrary to my own beliefs, to administration policy and to the original strategy we had in mind." He accepted "full responsibility" for the Iran-contra affair: "As the Navy would say, this happened on my watch."
Whew. Dubya couldn’t begin to admit such a thing, and that’s why Reagan is a much bigger man than Dubya can ever hope to be.
I’m not sure yet how history will treat Reagan, but it will be better than they treat Dubya. Still, his legacy will always be clouded. The Times quotes Thomas Cronin, the McHugh Professor of American Institutions at Colorado College, who said Americans evaluated the greatness of a president on "criteria that are over and above popularity and re-election."
Cronin credited Mr. Reagan with enhancing national security with the I.N.F. treaty but asked: "Did he expand opportunities for all Americans regardless of race, gender or income bracket? It's my view Reagan has not enlarged the equity factor nor the educational opportunities for most Americans."
“And the Reagan presidency was lacking in moral leadership, he said, an essential quality for greatness. "He was too late, too little and too lame when it came to human rights abuses at home and abroad," Professor Cronin said. "He was not willing to be a leader."
Unlike Bush, Reagan worked with our allies and he even had Democrats as friends such as Tip O’Neill. But the most negative part of Reagan’s legacy may be Dubya and the extremists in this administration, who have taken their cues from extremists in the Reagan White House like James Watt, or Gary Bauer ..... and the list goes on.
Reagan will be remembered as being well-liked and a likeable man, but I don’t think that Bush will be able to even claim that, Bush will be remembered as the legacy of all the negative things of Reagan and none of the positive.
In foreign policy, before the Iran-contra scandal broke, the biggest setback was the bombing in Lebannon that killed 241 Americans. We hear all kinds of rhetoric today about not “cutting and running” but that’s exactly what Reagan did. He pulled them out in 4 months. And, to get the minds of the public off from this topic, he invaded Grenada. For conservatives, they built up the myth that this was a great military victory, but really, it was the equivalent of the largest army in the world overtaking 12 guys with shovels. It did, of course, make conservatives proud, and served its real purpose – to help us forget what happened in Lebanon.
Then came Iran-contra, where Reagan’s staff set up a secret plans to supply weapons to Iran as ransom for US hostages, and the sales were transferred to the “contras” whose human rights violation were notorious, but that didn’t stop him from indulging in the myth that they were “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.” I don’t think anybody has insulted our founding fathers as badly, but Reagan got away with it.
At first Reagan denied that we traded arms for hostages and appointed sleaze-bag Ed Meese to investigate. He later resigned in scandal. And also later, Reagan essentially admitted he had lied about this incident, "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true," he said, "but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
And then he had the courage to say something that Dubya never will, he admitted accountability and came clean by saying that what started as a strategic opening to Iran had "deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages." He said, "This runs contrary to my own beliefs, to administration policy and to the original strategy we had in mind." He accepted "full responsibility" for the Iran-contra affair: "As the Navy would say, this happened on my watch."
Whew. Dubya couldn’t begin to admit such a thing, and that’s why Reagan is a much bigger man than Dubya can ever hope to be.
I’m not sure yet how history will treat Reagan, but it will be better than they treat Dubya. Still, his legacy will always be clouded. The Times quotes Thomas Cronin, the McHugh Professor of American Institutions at Colorado College, who said Americans evaluated the greatness of a president on "criteria that are over and above popularity and re-election."
Cronin credited Mr. Reagan with enhancing national security with the I.N.F. treaty but asked: "Did he expand opportunities for all Americans regardless of race, gender or income bracket? It's my view Reagan has not enlarged the equity factor nor the educational opportunities for most Americans."
“And the Reagan presidency was lacking in moral leadership, he said, an essential quality for greatness. "He was too late, too little and too lame when it came to human rights abuses at home and abroad," Professor Cronin said. "He was not willing to be a leader."
Unlike Bush, Reagan worked with our allies and he even had Democrats as friends such as Tip O’Neill. But the most negative part of Reagan’s legacy may be Dubya and the extremists in this administration, who have taken their cues from extremists in the Reagan White House like James Watt, or Gary Bauer ..... and the list goes on.
Reagan will be remembered as being well-liked and a likeable man, but I don’t think that Bush will be able to even claim that, Bush will be remembered as the legacy of all the negative things of Reagan and none of the positive.
posted by Zack at 8:34 AM
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