Centerfield

Re. Ronald Reagan:

I remember him as a likeable man - not the brightest president we had, but made for the media age. His was a voice that soothed and assured the depression era and WWII generation voters that all was going to be well.

I never cared for his economic policies, as I went through the 1980's in constant fear of layoff and earning power erosion from inflation. On the other hand, his administration (including the next four years with President Bush 1) apparently presented the right "face" to the Communist Block nations and the USSR and convinced them that we were more economically and militarily viable during this period of the Cold War. Of course the new game is to outperform us on the same playing field while overhead costs (read "salaries") are domestically very low.

Re. Ronald Reagan (Part 2)

.... His nickname of the "Teflon President" certainly wasn't made frivolously. One could disagree, dislike and even hate the things he was doing and still find it difficult to dislike the man in office.

I'm getting choked up. I never voted for him, but I "converted" around 1986, and now see him as one of the near-great Presidents, on a par with Teddy Roosevelt. I'd like to see him on the dollar coin.

Without going too deeply into specifics, he came into office when most people thought America was in decline. They didn't think that after he left office.

I think he was a lot more complex than people give him credit, having started out as a New Deal Democrat and finding his own way after that. He was very intuitive, and had an understanding of human character, which is one asset his actor's training gave to him.

He continues to be an inspiration to me. God bless.

My first memory of anything political was Ronald Reagan. I remember when I was young not being able to imagine what life would be like without him as our country's President. Although, like Todd, I didn't agree always with Reagan's ideology, I have rremendous respect for his leadership abilities and his humanistic approach to governing. He hated taxes, but raised them in a time of crisis in California. He built a nuclear arsenal, but feared nuclear war. He spoke of the evil empire, but compromised with it's leaders. He strongly stood for conservative principles, but believed that good leaders understand the skill of negotiation.

Washington was the President at the start of the nation, Jefferson the start of expansion, Lincoln the start of reconstruction, Teddy Roosevelt the start of internationalism, and Ronald Reagan was the President at the start of the new morning America based on hope, optimism, patriotism, and free markets.

I agree with Rick fully. I believe that Ronald Reagan will be treated historically as one of the greatest American Presidents.

I wrote something about the passing of President Reagan for preemptivekarma and I'm hopeful you all will come over and read it.

As most of you know, I'm a political liberal. I don't expect everyone to totally agree or totally disagree with what I wrote. It's just my personal thoughts and hopes....and I thought you might find the perspective interesting.

Please feel free to comment or not...and I hope you find it meaningful regardless.

Here's that link

http://preemptivekarma.com/2004/06/goodbye-president-reagan.html

RealClearPolitics.com has the following links:

'The Boys Of Pointe Du Hoc' - Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984
An Optimist's Legacy - George Will, Washington Post
The Reagan Legacy - Robert Bartley, Wall Street Journal - January 19, 1989
The Secrets of Reagan's Success - Joe Klein, Time
Effect on U.S. Politics Still Felt - Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times
How They Misjudged the Reagan I Knew - Richard Perle, Daily Telegraph
Reagan and His Mythology - Marie Cocco, Newsday
Ronald Reagan’s Successful Legacy - Steven Hayward, National Review

Ronald Wilson Reagan: Wash Post | NY Post | Miami Herald | Chicago Tribune

What was important about Reagan was not the policy specifics (which is why Republicans have had difficulty reproducing his success) but his deep, thematic understanding of the American experiment. His philosophy was not fascist or reactionary, but based on the Emersonian notion of self-reliance.

A lot of people who were adults during his terms in office get hung up on specific actions, like firing the air traffic controllers, rather than taking a holistic view of his legacy. When he took office, the United States was widely seen to be in decline. When he left office, we were experiencing a renewal, and it was Communism that was near-collapse.

I strongly agree with your last post here, Rick. I think you summed up Reagan very well there.

I was still a strong supporter of the GOP when Reagan was first elected. Somehow I managed to get totally hooked on politics at a very young age and avidly followed Presidential politics from the Presidency of Gerald Ford on. I remember well being disappointed when Reagan won the nomination for the 1980 election because I had wanted Baker to win. And before that I had been pleased when Ford won the nomination for the '76 election over Reagan. So, I was never a Reagan supporter prior to his becoming President. But I quickly became converted on the strength of his amazing ability as The Great Communicator.

Reagan was arguably the one person in American politics who proved the second of UC-Berkley Professor George Lakoff's two laws of politics - that people vote their self-identity. Perhaps Reagan was actually the inspiration for Lakoff.

Reagan made us feel good about ourselves and about our place in the world. The tragedy of the Vietnam War was still fresh in the American memory and Reagan's calm, endlessly self-assured portrayal of what America ultimately stood for was a soothing balm to the ugly wound that the failure in Vietnam had left in our collective psyche.

It is for this reason that I believe history will remember President Reagan as one of the greats.

Gosh, I strongly disagree with most of the above. Though I was only 16 when Reagan came to office, I was already very interested in politics. I had favored Ford over Carter four years earlier because I recognized that the Soviet Union was then the greatest threat to humanity and I (incorrectly, I now believe) thought that Carter would be softer on communism. But Reagan brought my days of being more Republican than Democrat to an end. I still think that he made anti-intellectualism fashionable in contemporary American politics, and that he was, in effect, the first "postmodern" president in his emphasis on style over substance--he was allegedly the "Great Communicator," but almost proud of not being a particulary deep thinker.

I realize that some people felt that the nation was mired in malaise and that it was Reagan's hyperbolic optimism that brought us out of it. This may be true of some people, though I have a hard time seeing it since I didn't find myself in the malaise. Times were tough in certain ways and scary in certain ways, but...well, I guess I thought that we were made of sterner stuff... Things just didn't seem so awful that we needed a national "yes man" telling us that it was morning in America...

And for god's sake, Iran-Contra! A heinous political crime for which he probably should have been impeached...

I recognize that he was a nice man, I just think--provisionally and subject to the final verdict of historians--that he was a bad president.

Winston,

Note that I said that I believe that *history* will remember Reagan as one of the greats. I didn't say that *I* believe he was one of the greats. I don't. What I tried to do was to lay out why I believe that history will remember him that way. Further, I believe that he deserves credit for it.

You and I actually don't see him all that differently. Except that, like the original Walsh Report, I give him a pass on Iran/Contra because I'm not convinced that he knew about it. VicePresident Bush and the others, however, are a different story. I firmly believe that VP Bush knew about it. And I believe that Bush 41 pardoned the key players when he became President, not for the reasons he gave but rather for the self-serving reason of covering his own backside politically and legally.

My personal view of the holistic Reagan is that on balance he was an average President - neither a great nor a bad one. His greatness as a communicator of vast ideas is offset by his horrible, myopic fiscal policies.

Think Reagan was a likeable guy and was in his greatest acting role as President. He had a fine tuned use of media and media image. Those around him ran things around him just like they're doing for George Bushie.

[Of course, the more seasoned of us know that people will be paid to write glowing histories. Isn't that always the way? Hopefully, those will be countered by some more Centrists writers.
And, hopefully all these would be limited, yet have my doubts as they're all still writing and trying to make money off or univ careers on books about the founders. etc. etc.

Alex

This weekend we held a fly-in airshow (Wings of Rememberance) to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, and to honor the surviving World War II veterans of our community and country. Not a big show, just a fly-in of some vintage WW2-era planes for the public to see, some flight opportunities in them for citizens, and some ceremonies to let our surviving veterans know that we remember their service.

We had already planned to fly the flags at half-mast today and open with a brief memorial service, to honor those who didn't come home. The Air Force Color Guard opened the ceremony for us, an Air Force Chaplain presided, and the Honor section reserved for veterans was well-populated, including many WW2 vets, even one Pearl Harbor survivor. It was bittersweet, as all such ceremonies are, especially with the addition of Capt. Ronald Reagan's name to the rolls of World War II veterans no longer with us.

Ronald Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps. in 1937 as a private for basic training. He was promoted to Second Leiutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry after completion of basic training, having taken all his officer's courses by correspondance in preceding years. That same year, he was discovered by a Hollywood agent and signed to a seven-year contract. After Pearl Harbor, he repeatedly tried to gain active duty assignment overseas and was just as repeatedly turned down because of poor eyesight. He persisted, and was finally accepted for active duty on April 19, 1942, but was restricted to limited stateside service due to his sight limitations. He was assigned as Port Liasion Officer, Fort Mason, San Francisco. Because of his acting background, the Army Air Force wanted him for war films and he was transferred to the AAF in May of 1942.

Denied his desire to serve overseas, Reagan threw himself into his stateside military assignment. While on active duty with the 1st Motion Picture Unit and the 18th AAFBU, Capt. Reagan served as Personnel Officer, Post Adjutant, Executive Officer, and even Commanding Officer, often two or more at the same time. His units produced over 400 training films, and he was highly praised by his commanding officers for his initiative and abilities. He was recommended for promotion to Major in 1945, but there were no openings. He was mustered out as a Captain in December 1945. He remained in the Officer's Reserve Corps until 1953, when his commission was terminated as required by law.

They also serve, who must remain behind to support. Something to remember, especially today.

I think if an honest historical assessment of Reagan is done...he will be remembered as a mediocre President...a mixed bag. He made some important contributions and had some pretty significant foibles. For some his charm and generally ideology kept some folks squarely in his corner. For others many of his policies coupled with the attempts by conservatives to canonize Reagan will always breed contempt for him.

In my opinion, he won't be remembered in the long run as a great President. He didn't have the significant peril to the nation that Washington or Lincoln or FDR had. He didn't have the same kind of vision that Teddy Roosevelt or Thomas Jefferson had.

In the end I think he'll be remembered as average....probably close to Clinton.

I think Reagan will be remembered as one of the most significant presidents of the 20th Century. Whether he was good or bad is largely a matter of your preference. But he essentially changed the terms of debate in American politics, ie, the role of government in American society. Historians can debate his role in ending the Cold War, but I think it's hard to debate his significance in changing American politics. Again, whether that's good or bad depends on your point of view. It has a direct effect on our everyday life. For a small example, Reagan initiated (through his court and agency appointments) monumental changes in antitrust law. Compare that to Clinton who, while a two term president, really left little of a legacy (other than dirty Monica jokes) although it was not necessarily his fault. So, although I never voted for him, in that sense, I think Reagan was a "great" president in the broader sense of the term, i.e., important.