Ronald Reagan

I've never been comfortable with Ronald Reagan or his role in history. I have a sizable respect for any person who has served as President of the United States, as I think it's got to be about the toughest job anyone can dream up. And certainly there have been more useless Presidents in history, whereas Reagan was a responsible for a great many changes, and accomplished quite a number of things.

But accomplished is not harmless, and the question of whether the accomplishments and changes have made the country better is a fair and important one. Reagan gets very justified credit for his role in ending the Cold War, and living in a world which is not daily facing the threat of nuclear war is certainly a goodness. One does wonder how much longer Bolshevist Communism could have continued, especially with Gorbechev running the show, but few argue that Reagan's policy hastened its collapse (and I won't either). He encouraged a sense of optimism and pride in the country that was certainly necessary after the strife of the 60s and Vietnam and Watergate.

But he's also the one who presided over trading weapons to a fanatical Islamist state in exchange for American hostages, using the money to finance an illegal war responsible for thousands of deaths of civilians in Central America. If I have to explain why this is wrong, then you won't get it.

He is the one who propped up and provided all the Weapons of Mass Destruction to Saddam Hussein, in order to support him in the war against Iran (who he had just provided weapons to). The President of the Lebanon debacle. When people talk about the Islamist perception of the US as a weak nation that will run away when things get difficult, it is wise to determine where that perception comes from. The question of whether we should have been in Lebanon in the first place is a valid one, and I'm not 100% certain that Reagan was wrong to pull out. But by the rhetoric used by the current administration, Reagan was certainly a coward. (Particulary when viewed in the context of Spain's recent pullout.)

He is the President who maintained funding for the middle class while slashing social programs for the poorest. The president of the deficit and ketchup as a vegetable for schoolchildren. The president suggesting that people are homeless and attending soup kitchens "by choice".

To me, after the two good points above, Reagan's biggest legacy is economic. I see his policies as responsible for destroying the sense of fical responsibility in the Republican party. For my money, fiscal responsibility is one of the few things Republicanism had going for it. But Reagonomics encouraged wildly irresponsible combinations of tax cuts and spending increases, and a willful reliance on deficit spending. You don't have to look too far to see the shadows of these policies in our current Administration and Republican thought. In fact, government spending under President Bush 43 has increased faster than it did under Clinton. And I think its quite fair to trace this collapse of one of the core values of the Republican Party back to Reagan.

It's still to early to tell how history will judge President Reagan and his legacy. But in the ongoing eulogizing and lamentation, I think its important to reflect on the whole of his administration, and not just the pretty photographs.

Notes:

Reagan and US support of Iraq

Slate coverage of Reagan

Excellent article on Reagan's role in the collapse of the Cold War (Slate [of course])