Ronald Reagan, RIP
Many great political leaders are remembered less for their specific accomplishments than for their involvement in key turning points in history. That is definitely true of America's 40th president, Ronald Reagan, who died this weekend after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
Reagan won election in 1980 at a time when national self-confidence and the power and prestige of the Oval Office were at historic lows. His famous optimism proved contagious, and he helped bring the presidency into the information age through his ability to use the bully pulpit to communicate simple values and clear goals directly to the American people.
Reagan's presidency also coincided with a critical phase in the Cold War, characterized by the internal moral, economic, and political rot of the Soviet bloc. Historians will long debate Reagan's precise contribution to the collapse of international communism, but his willingness to stand up to, and negotiate with, a dangerously shaky Soviet government undoubtedly helped to ensure the Cold War ended quickly, decisively, and peacefully.
And finally, Ronald Reagan presided over the end of one political era and the beginning of another. His nomination for the presidency in 1980 -- after two failed earlier efforts -- signaled the takeover of the Republican Party by a conservative movement born in Barry Goldwater's insurgency of 1964 (fittingly enough, Reagan's first moment in the national political spotlight).
At the same time, Reagan's election and re-election owed much to the decline of a Democratic Party that had lost its sense of national purpose and become an eroding coalition of voters held together by nostalgia for the progressive accomplishments of the past. The shock of Reagan's two victories helped accelerate a movement for intellectual ferment and moral revival among Democrats, which in turn led to Bill Clinton's two presidential victories in the 1990s.
But the idea, frequently mentioned in some of the early obituaries, that Reagan pulled the whole country to the Right is unfounded. By the end of the 1980s, Reaganism as a political force had pretty much run its course. His effort to simultaneously slash taxes, boost defense spending, and balance the budget produced a mountain of public debt. The economic boom the country enjoyed in the mid-'80s was preceded and succeeded by deep recessions. While some conservatives claim their 1994 conquest of Congress was a delayed national endorsement of Reagan's policy views, it was preceded by a presidential election in which his chosen successor received 37 percent of the vote. In other words, while most Americans quite rightly remember the 40th president as an effective leader who restored national confidence at a critical moment, this should not be confused with any desire to return to his policies or embrace his political philosophy.
Since today's Republicans invariably cite Ronald Reagan as their guiding inspiration, they should pay special attention to three aspects of his political career that his conservative heirs have too often forgotten:
* Despite his fervent anti-communism and unshakable belief in the unique mission of the United States, he remained faithful to the Cold War bipartian tradition in foreign policy, and never abandoned America's traditional alliances or the multilateral institutions created to advance them.
* Despite his longstanding championship of a conservative domestic agenda, he was willing to compromise and adjust his policies to reflect real-life conditions, as shown by his decision to sign a liberal abortion law as governor of California, and to support tax hikes both as governor and as president.
* Despite his many years of service to the GOP, he never sought to demonize his political opponents, and never questioned their patriotism or sincerity.
Reagan's universally praised decency was undoubtedly rooted in a healthy sense of his own limitations, and of politicians generally. That, ironically, is why he was larger than his ideology, his party, or his record, and why his memory will live on when all the debates that accompanied his long political career have faded.
---- Link to this edition of the New Dem Daily on the Web: "Ronald Reagan, RIP" <http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=252688&kaid=131&subid=192>