Reagan

I've decided recently that I'm interested in Ronald Reagan. My conversion to conservatism is very much after Reagan was president, and what opinions I had were formed by my father, who still thinks Reagan is the worst thing to ever hit America.

While the bible expects us to honor our parents, it doesn't say we always have to agree with them.

I've been reading a bit, mostly books by people who worked for Reagan, and I'm now convinced (as many Conservatives are) that Reagan is the greatest president this country has had in many years. I just finished Peggy Noonan's When Character was King, in which she discusses how Reagan's character shaped his presidency. Another read was Peter Robinson's How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. A third is Douglas Brinkley's Boys of Pointe Du Hoc.

In any event, other than listing my current reading, I should possibly share what I've gotten out of this. My father's complaint was always that Reagan sold out to business interests - he was in the pocket of corporations. What I think I've learned in reading is that there was a lot more to Reagan than that. To answer that point, I will say that there's a lot of good that should be said about corporations. Corporate America has employed more people, created more wealth, and done more to spur our economic growth than any other sector of the country. Government may employ more people, but to what end? More meaningless programs to pour tax dollars down? No thanks - I'm comfortable with capitalism, and comfortable with corporations. Nothing's perfect, and I won't defend Enron, but corporate America has helped this country thrive.

Anyway, what I'm picking up about Reagan is his determination to make this world a better place, and his commitment to his principles no matter what people said about him. He also seems to have been right on nearly every major initiative he undertook as president. The economy needed the tax cuts he pushed; the Soviets needed to be stared down; the country needed a return to the optimism he projected.

It's interesting - I taped a PBS show the other night on Reagan, and I caught a bit of it. Knowing PBS, I had low expectations, and on a few occasions they were met admirably. They interview this one biographer, who says "everyone says Reagan slowed down after he was shot. He lost the glint in his eye, and it was a slow, steady decline after that."

So, let's see. He's shot some 9 weeks into his first term. It's a slow, steady decline after that, right? So his reconstruction of the American economy, his landslide victory in the 1984 election, and his crushing defeat of the Soviet Union (without firing a shot) were part of a slow, decline? We should all have declines like that. I'm taking that guy's interpretation as part of the usual leftwing perspective on Reagan (not that I know this Lou Cannon's political affiliation). Reagan the Dunce. Reagan the Momma's Boy. Reagan the Napping Old Man. Reagan the Rich White Elitist. That sort of perspective is what I've come to expect of the Left, and they never pass up the opportunity to show how out of step with the rest of America they are.

I've come to the conclusion that Reagan was one of history's Great Men, Great Deeds types. He came along at just the right time to save this country from a Carter-like quick, precipitous decline and defeat the greatest threat to this world since WWII. I think I would have liked him, and I think the world is a better place because of him, and I'm glad he was my president.