I have been getting a lot of use out of CCK lately. No reason to stop! My friend Chad has this to say about Ronald Reagan:
The man was a failure.
I've never really figured out why the right has deified the man. He delivered nothing on their agenda other than empty rhetoric. I guess the fact that he is the lone remaining object of hero worship on the right probably says more about the state of conservativsm than anything else.
Now if I am open to the charge of hero worship, it would clearly be towards Reagan rather than Bush 43. Not long ago a colleague of mine in the history department, a firm Democrat I might add, agreed with me on one thing: Reagan ranks as the second greatest President of the twentieth century, FDR being the first. If he was a failure, we should always have such failures as President. Let me mention a few points:
First, Reagan broke the back of inflation. For most of my early life, inflation was a persistent irritant for pretty much all Americans. Since Reagan's presidency, it disappeared as a major issue.
Second, Reagan ushered in the longest period of steady economic growth since the nation recovered from the depression. Except for two shallow recessions, that growth continues to the present day.
Third, Reagan achieved the first arms control agreement that actually reduced the stock of nuclear weapons. He did so by holding the Western alliance together when the Soviets deployed short range nuclear missiles aimed at Western Europe. Reagan deployed our own short range nukes, and the Ruskies were forced to cut a deal. Both sets of weapons were removed.
Fourth, Reagan's policies brought down the Soviet Union. He launched a military build up that the Soviets tried to match, at the very moment that their economy and social structure were nearing the breaking point. They broke. Reagan's letters to Soviet leaders show that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Any one of these achievements would constitute a great legacy for a president. All four put him at least in second place among Presidents of his century. Chad is right to say that Reagan handed conservatives some disappointments. He allowed government to continue growing in large measure. That was the price to pay for his military build up. The federal deficit grew under Reagan, but as a percentage of GDP it remained manageable. And Bill Clinton achieved a balanced budget by following Reagan's economic policies.
Reagan's greatness, like that of FDR, depended largely on circumstances. FDR had the great depression and WWII to deal with. Reagan had stagflation and a tottering USSR. A reasonable and well-informed person can find much to criticize in both cases. To call either man a failure would suggest a deep ignorance of recent history.
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