Ken Silverstein: Reaganite Amnesia
Some years ago, I was talking to an older conservative woman about the Reagan era and she told me that whatever problems there were during that time, the president had been absolutely correct about one thing: “Something had to be done about the budget deficit.” Given that Reagan created what were then the biggest budget deficits in history, it was hard to imagine how she could say something so self-evidently ludicrous. Then Time magazine came along with a lengthy story on the supposed crisis of conservatism, with Reagan, weeping a single crystal tear, on the cover, and it becomes clear how such myths are born and flourish.
“How the Right Went Wrong,” by Karen Tumulty, explains that the “principles that propelled the [conservative] movement have either run their course, or run aground, or been abandoned by Reagan's legatees,” and suggested the “scandals and the corruption” of the Bush years, as well as the GOP's failure to respect “law and order,” were a contrast to the virtues of Reagan's time. The piece also quotes conservative activist Richard Viguerie, who says that wars like Iraq weren’t “a Ronald Reagan type of idea . . . No planes flew. No tanks rolled. No armies marched.”
What? In addition to the Reagan deficits, which during his first two years in office alone soared from $80 billion to $200 billion (and which were even larger as a percentage of GDP than the Bush deficits), this supposed “Golden Age” of conservatism wasn’t known for law and order. As Sean Wilentz wrote in Rolling Stone last year, “The most scandal-ridden administration in the modern era, apart from Nixon's, was Ronald Reagan's, now widely remembered through a haze of nostalgia as a paragon of virtue. A total of twenty-nine Reagan officials . . . were convicted on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair, illegal lobbying, and a looting scandal inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” and three Cabinet members “left their posts under clouds of scandal.” The only reason Reagan wasn't impeached for Iran-Contra is that the Democrats were too timid to press for his removal. Of course, if they hadn't been so cowardly, the imperial presidency of the Bush Jr. years would never have happened.
As to the pacific nature of the Gipper, it's true that he didn't declare war on any major countries, but he did invade Grenada on the basis of an alleged threat to American medical students that was as trumped up as the story about Saddam's WMDs. He also authorized the CIA to run covert wars in, among other places, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola. Time notes that Reagan “campaigned on smaller government, fiscal discipline and religious values,” and concedes that he “didn't live up to everything he promised.” That's laughable—like Bush, Reagan lived up to virtually none of his promises. There's been no betrayal of his legacy, merely a continuation. I don't have any desire to dance on Reagan's grave, but that doesn't excuse Time from acting like the “Golden Age” is anything other than fiction.
Read entire article at Time Magazine
“How the Right Went Wrong,” by Karen Tumulty, explains that the “principles that propelled the [conservative] movement have either run their course, or run aground, or been abandoned by Reagan's legatees,” and suggested the “scandals and the corruption” of the Bush years, as well as the GOP's failure to respect “law and order,” were a contrast to the virtues of Reagan's time. The piece also quotes conservative activist Richard Viguerie, who says that wars like Iraq weren’t “a Ronald Reagan type of idea . . . No planes flew. No tanks rolled. No armies marched.”
What? In addition to the Reagan deficits, which during his first two years in office alone soared from $80 billion to $200 billion (and which were even larger as a percentage of GDP than the Bush deficits), this supposed “Golden Age” of conservatism wasn’t known for law and order. As Sean Wilentz wrote in Rolling Stone last year, “The most scandal-ridden administration in the modern era, apart from Nixon's, was Ronald Reagan's, now widely remembered through a haze of nostalgia as a paragon of virtue. A total of twenty-nine Reagan officials . . . were convicted on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair, illegal lobbying, and a looting scandal inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” and three Cabinet members “left their posts under clouds of scandal.” The only reason Reagan wasn't impeached for Iran-Contra is that the Democrats were too timid to press for his removal. Of course, if they hadn't been so cowardly, the imperial presidency of the Bush Jr. years would never have happened.
As to the pacific nature of the Gipper, it's true that he didn't declare war on any major countries, but he did invade Grenada on the basis of an alleged threat to American medical students that was as trumped up as the story about Saddam's WMDs. He also authorized the CIA to run covert wars in, among other places, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola. Time notes that Reagan “campaigned on smaller government, fiscal discipline and religious values,” and concedes that he “didn't live up to everything he promised.” That's laughable—like Bush, Reagan lived up to virtually none of his promises. There's been no betrayal of his legacy, merely a continuation. I don't have any desire to dance on Reagan's grave, but that doesn't excuse Time from acting like the “Golden Age” is anything other than fiction.