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The progressive press, particularly on the internet, are having a field day beating up and kicking the carcass of Ronald Reagan ~ but its counterproductive and vindictive .
But in this piece, the editorial board at the ever-liberal Wisconsin daily argues Reagan's willingness to fight for his faith and his leadership style offers important lessons for progressives ~ and we ignore these lessons at our peril.
Allen L Roland
WHAT REAGAN TAUGHT US
An editorial / Madison Capital Times
June 7, 2004
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/#000397
In the hours after former President Ronald Reagan's passing, at age 93, it was amusing to witness the rewriting of history.
Suddenly, the man who redirected billions of dollars away from domestic needs to build the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet and ran up record deficits was remade as a statesman who restored dignity and direction to his country. Commentators seem to have forgotten that members of his administration investigated and indicted at a staggering rate and Reagan himself could have been impeached for allowing aides to create a shadow government that peddled weapons to sworn enemies of the United States and used the profits to fund illegal wars in Central America
While no one should begrudge Reagan's admirers this opportunity to replay those "morning in America" commercials that were deployed with such success during the last of their man's fourth run for the presidency, it is a bit embarrassing to hear people who know better embracing the spin.
The problem with all this hero worship is that the spin underestimates and demeans Reagan. It reduces a complex and controversial man to a blurry icon with few of the rough edges that made him one of the most remarkable political figures of his time.
This newspaper disagreed with most of what Reagan did during two terms as governor of California and two terms as president. And nothing that has happened since he left office in 1989 has altered our view.
Yet, we have always maintained a grudging respect for the man. And we continue to recognize that there is much that liberals can - and should - learn from him.
Ronald Reagan was a master politician who understood how to package rightwing ideas in appealing enough forms to get himself elected and, sometimes, to implement his programs. He did so by maintaining an optimism about his ideology and its potential that most conservatives before him lacked. That optimism transformed the conservative movement from a petty circle of grumbling cynics who believed that every glass was half empty - and probably poisoned - into energetic and, dare we say it, happy warriors on behalf of tax cuts, weapons systems, corporate welfare, deregulation and the blurring of lines between church and state.
In the years after Barry Goldwater's landslide loss of the 1964 presidential election, many conservatives had doubts about whether they would ever be able to peddle their programs successfully. But Reagan did not doubt. He believed. And his faith was infectious. It helped him beat a liberal Democratic governor of California in 1966 and a moderate Democratic president in 1980. And it permitted a new generation of conservatives to feel they were part of a movement with not just principles but with a future.
As that movement grasped its future, during Reagan's presidency and in its aftermath, liberals became the doubters. Many Democrats gave up on the progressive values that had carried that party to its greatest successes, and began to move to the right. It was a tragic error, for which the Democratic party continues to pay, as does the country.
The lesson to be learned from Reagan is not an ideological one. His ideology was wrong for America and wrong for the world - something even Reagan sometimes recognized, as when he backed off the most extreme elements of the conservative agenda to, for instance, defend Social Security.
Rather, the lesson to be learned from Reagan is a stylistic one. He loved preaching his conservative doctrines. And he loved battling with liberals at the ballot box, at the debate podium and in the Capitol. He showed no respect for party decorum, challenging a sitting Republican president - Gerald Ford - who he felt was too moderate. And he was willing to lose on principle, even in fights over nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This willingness to fight for his faith is what made Reagan remarkable. It is what inspired conservatives. And it is what liberals would be wise to learn from Ronald Reagan.
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