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WOMI / Stew's Views / February 9, 2011

RONALD REAGAN: THE MEDIA, THE MAN, THE MYTH

February 6 was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. Because the date coincided with the infinitely more marketable NFL Super Bowl, media pundits grudgingly took a one-day holiday from reflecting on Reagan's presidency and how it should be compared to that of the sitting president.

For better and for worse, Barak Obama will, in 30 years, be subject to the same kind of revisionism and mythmaking that makes Reagan a still-fascinating but less polarizing figure today.

It's hard, even disrespectful, for progressives in 2011 to belittle the conviction, charm and optimism of the red-cheeked former actor and governor. For one thing the man is, ya know, dead. Nor did Reagan come by death easily, having left a loving wife and wistful nation during a decade-long fade into "the long goodbye" of Alzheimer's.

That was sad. He deserved better.

What he doesn't deserve is the drumbeat of canonization by the current crop of wanna-be's in the GOP, all of whom are quick to invoke the Reagan name as the basis for their consevative bona fides. As many historians who have studied the contrast in his words and deeds are now agreeing, Reagan (like Obama) was a pragmatist who knew when to hold and when to fold. Behind the scenes, Nancy Reagan -- the real politician in the family -- was exerting the same kind of influence that conservatives derided in the more open "two-for-one" presidency of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Let's see what else conservatives remember to forget:

Reagan famously said at his 1981 inauguration that govenment is our problem, not the solution. From there, he went on to sign off on eight unbalanced budgets. The national debt grew from $700 billion (back when that was real money!) to nearly $3 trillion. The number of federal employees grew 3.5 percent, including a large buildup at the Pentagon. Instead of getting rid of two Cabinet agencies, as he had campaigned to do, he added a new one.

Reagan was a tax-cutter. True: For a year. He engineered major cuts in 1981, the greatest benefit going to the wealthiest Americans and major corporations. A year later, with the economy in the tank and the deficit headed for the moon (sound familiar?), Reagan signed off on the largest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history. The spin doctors in the administration called it "The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982." Wink, wink.

Reagan was one of our most popular presidents. Today, yes, because we are a kind and forgiving people. But while in office, not so much. His approval ratings then averaged just under 53 percent, peaking just after he was shot six months into his first term (effective, but risky as far as polling strategies go), then falling to 35 percent as unemployment soared. And during that messy Iran-Contra thing, a third of Americans wanted him to resign from office.

Reagan was a populist and a conservative culture warrior. He certainly sounded like one at the time. He wrote passionately about his opposition to abortion, but never sought a constitutional ban. Urged to speak at anti-abortion rallies, Reagan literally phoned it in with a quick call from the Oval Office, or perhaps, his ranch. He extolled the virtues of hard work, but negated decades of gains by organized labor when striking air traffic controllers were summarily dumped and replaced. The lasting impact was obvious a few years later in Owensboro when more than a hundred striking employees of General Electric lost their jobs. Tea partiers can rant all they want about falling wages, but when Republicans and conservative judges neutered labor's power to strike, the welcome sign went up for cheap foreign imports and off-shored jobs.

Ronald Reagan was able to clearly express conservative values -- and do it in a likeable way that eludes hard-liners such as Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove. But whether another good-looking former Republican governor with more style than substance can again become President of the United States of America. . . Well, a gal from Wasilla, Alaska, can hope.

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Sources: Several recently published commentaries, including a myth-busting

roundup by Will Bunch in the Feb. 4, 2011 Washington Post, a/k/a the

lame-stream media.