Centerfield

There have been some comments posted over at Kos that have been vitriolic about Reagan...but frankly I think that's more reflective about the polarization of our country in general...as opposed to anything specific about Reagan.

Kos himself has posted some very nice things about Reagan as have several other liberal blogs such as Washington Monthly.

I'm glad Senator Kerry treated Reagan's passing with honor and dignity. Most leftists that I am reading are.

I doubt the righties will be so kind to Carter...who's presidency was mixed at best...but who's life is a shining example.

I don't think this country is as polarized as it seems... I think it appears that way because extremist partisan ideological whores are getting the attention, both on the left and the right. Polls show a split between Bush and Kerry, but they are largely running on a similiar platform that will mostly take the country in the same direction.

The people at Kos do not represent a significant political movement as the resounding defeat of Howard Dean proves. Their politics is one of anger, fear, and hate... It is exactly the kind of politics that men like Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter for that matter, stood against. This kind of politics came and went in the 80's because the country saw through it, and it will come and go today... It is a blip on the radar screen, if you will.

Eisenhower died in 1969, Truman died in 1972, and Johnson died in 1973. We then went 21 years before another former (and disgraced) president -- Nixon -- died. I'm not sure that as a nation we really know how to respond to this type of event. But in a time of more than a hint of growing national self-doubt, I might consider his death and the retrospection about the mood of the country in 1980, and Reagan's unyielding faith in the power of democracy in freedom to change the world, that it has caused to be his final contribution.

I too am impressed with Kerry's response --classy and presidential.

Please pardon typos in prior comment; they should be obvious.

I don't think the comments at Kos' place have as much to do with the polarization of our country as they do of the general types that hang out over there.

That said, I think most other people in the country, regardless of political affiliation, recognize that Reagan represented the optimism about America that makes us the greatest country in the world. I think the key point is that Reagan truly was a great president and so is worthy of praise from both sides of the aisle, similiar to what FDR would command. Carter's presidency can hardly be viewed in the same vein. He is a wonderful human being but was a fairly middling President.

When Reagan came to office, I was dead set against him. I was too young to have much resistance to partisanship yet, and my parents told me he was wrong about abortion and voodoo economics. And he gave speeches implying bad things about people like my parents: federal employees.

I still think he was wrong about many things, especially on the '80 campaign trail. But he brought in a great team and mostly listened to them, except about deficit spending, even when what they had to say contradicted what Reagan said on the campaign trail. He had a great team because he was a great manager. No question about it. Did he make mistakes? Yes (deficits, Poindexter!). A really good manager does make a few mistakes because he's pushing hard.

One reason I never trusted him while he was in office was that he wasn't so much the big thinker; he entrusted his big policy directions to his helpers (now I realize that that takes guts and that it worked). In the meantime, he assigned himself the role for which he was best suited: talking.He was certainly the most articulate and persuasive President I've ever read about. I've read that he had a job that gave him a truly amazing amount of practice doing talks of the sort that come in handy for politicians. He had a gift for anecdotes unmatched since Lincoln, and although great Presidents have had a command of greater language, he's at least among the most persuasive.

I have no idea what his historical context will be. Reading Presidential histories has inclined me to the idea that the dust doesn't settle for fifty years.

The often stridently partisan democratic Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe had a pretty good article on him this a.m, even though he made a few swings at batting credit to Carter. The interesting point Oliphant made is that Reagan committed to a tight money policy that was strong medicine and led to a serious recession. This painful policy strangled the punishing inflation and spiraling taxes that had tag-teamed the economy.

I had zero understanding of economics back then. Like John, I wasn't a fan of Reagan back in the day, but now I give credit where it's due, for taming inflation and helping end the cold war.

I don't think anyone should be happy when someone dies (unless it is someone truly nasty like Hitler). I suspect that a lot of the most vitrolic and nasty partisan comments come from people that can't put politics in perspective. I had problems with many of Reagan's policies but I certainly never considered him a bad man. And I think historically, whether you agreed with him or not, Reagan will certainly be seen as one of the most inflential and significant presidents of the 20th century. Like FDR, he changed the relationship of government to the citizenry (or maybe I should say he restored it to the way it was before FDR). He was essentially the avatar of modern conservatism. Again, whether you like these developments or not, they were certainly extremely important. And whatever else you can say about Reagan, I can never forget his absolutely wonderful response to the Challenger explosion. In my lifetime, I have never heard a more moving or inspiring political address.