Reagan's sunny legacy

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Ronald Reagan did three big things. He played the endgame on the Cold War, leading to a solid win for the West. He toughened the American economy by deregulating it. And he redefined the Republican Party, helping to make it what it is today.

Because he had been a movie actor, and because he had simple and strong beliefs that academics ridiculed, Reagan was continually underestimated. As an actor he was competent only; as a politician he was extraordinary. Unlike others with strong beliefs, he was not soured by not getting his way. He staked out a position, rallied support for it, and then cut the best deal he could.

He campaigned for office at a time when Americans felt beleaguered. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan. Iranian radicals had seized the American embassy in Teheran and held Americans hostage. As the candidate of toughness, he was vulnerable to the charge of being a warmonger, a concern that had helped sink Barry Goldwater in 1964. Reagan defused it with his sunny personality; he was not a bellicose man. He did not get the country into a war. He put missiles into Europe, called for a space-based defense and a 600 ship Navy, all signaling to the Soviets that he would outspend them. He played the game well, and they folded.

The deregulation of the American economy had begun under President Jimmy Carter. Reagan accelerated it, at the cost of harsh unemployment in his early years. Two important events were the firing of federal air-traffic controllers and pushing through tax cuts that lowered the top rate of personal income tax from 70 percent to 28 percent. The result was an America that was more competitive, and more successful.

Reagan also cemented the redefinition of Republicanism, making it more Western and Southern than it had been, more populist and anti-government. We are used to that, now; we live under a Texan president who eats cheeseburgers, and in our state the most prominent politician of the right is a tax-cutting watch salesman. All of this follows in the wake of Reagan.

Reagan did not win them all. He aimed for a cut in social spending that mostly did not happen, and the result, coupled with the military spending and the tax cuts, was about $1.5 trillion in national debt.

His second term was embroiled in the Iran-Contra scandal, which came about because he tried to sidestep the will of Congress regarding an anti-communist insurgency in Nicaragua.

The man was also a quintessential American. He came from no aristocracy, and went to a tiny college. He made his own way. The first time he ran for president he lost. Shortly after he was elected, he was shot by a would-be assassin. He reacted by joking that he hoped the doctor was not a Democrat. It was one of his sunny moments.