The Wake

So good-ol’ George W. ain’t so good-ol’ no more. Not too popular, as it happens. The public’s general distaste for the war-monger-in-chief has spawned a mega-glorification of the most recent non-Bush Republican president, who happens to be Ronald Reagan. Been following politics? Ever since presidential campaigns started kicking off 30 years in advance, there’s been a wave of Reagan idolatry.

“I’m a Ronald Reagan conservative,” says John McCain, over and over again, and again and again. He’s not the only one. A few weeks ago at the CPAC, a political conference for right-wingers, a whopping 79% of poll respondents identified themselves as “Reagan Republicans” as opposed to “Bush Republicans.” It’s understandable, I think. If I were a Republican, especially one who’d been a cog in President Bush’s political support system over the past half-decade, I, too, would try to associate myself with someone a bit more popular and a lot less “worst-president-ever.”

How come nobody’s stopped to explain all this to the under-25 crowd? I mean, remember Ronald Reagan? I don’t. I was in kindergarten when he left office. Many who’ll read this were newborns. Sure we’ve heard about Reaganomics, we’ve seen the pictures of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, and we learned about crack in D.A.R.E class. Still, we’re sort of like the 1955 version of Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, who said, “Ronald Reagan?! The actor? Oh sure, who’s Vice President? Jerry Lewis?!”

All Back to the Future jokes aside, I went ahead and did some research on the 40th President. I tried to figure out what the story was on this guy. Then I tried to find out what the story really was, and I think I’ve learned something. People like Ronald Reagan a bunch. I mean, they really, really like the guy.

A February poll by Gallup ranks Reagan as second only to Abe Lincoln for greatest president ever. Impressive, but the same poll had Bill Clinton two behind Reagan, with Franklin Roosevelt coming in fifth. Reagan and Clinton are better presidents than FDR? I don’t have my diploma yet, but I’d cautiously suggest that the man who rebuilt America after the Great Depression, won World War II and basically saved the entire world – all while suffering from polio – might rank a tad higher on the merit scale than Slick Willy or Forgetful Ron.

I apologize for that Alzheimer’s joke back there. It was in poor taste. Alzheimer’s disease is a deeply saddening condition. Reagan died from it. But don’t start pinning those poll results on pity or sympathy.

Much like Clinton, Reagan’s likeability comes from his persona and his manner of speech. “The Great Communicator,” as Reagan’s often called, got people to buy what he was selling.

The problem is, according to a couple books and a bunch of articles that my editor wishes I would have read faster, the stuff he sold the country was rotten. Rotten cheese, literally. His policies, specifically in the areas of foreign relations, market deregulations and social welfare were disastrous and have had far reaching effects.

Reagan sailed into office on a platform of cutting taxes for corporations and high income earning individuals, jacking up defense spending, slashing social spending, removing regulatory red tape from Wall Street, reducing the size of government and gay bashing. Yep, gay bashing.

Ever heard of GRIDS? I hadn’t until recently. It’s a bunch of bogus government science that came out in 1981 at the dawn of AIDS. GRIDS: Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Uhh, bigotry anyone? Social conservatives did a great deal to discredit the AIDS cause as the disease spread like wildfire in America’s crack infested cities. Reagan wouldn’t even comment on AIDS until 1985. In my mind, I can just see him and Bush the senior chatting it up in the Oval Office…

Reagan: “George, I’m telling you, leave San Francisco off of the campaign trail. We’re talking Gaysville, USA. That’s where they made the GRIDS.”

Bush: “You know, Mr. President, that ailment came to exist when the chocolate-faced boy was penetrated by the gorilla. The boy gave the disease to the Catholic priest. The Catholic priest gave the GRIDS to the white boy, who became a homosexual. The rest is history.”

Reagan: “Catholics, it figures. Hey, how about that Hussein? He’s one hell of an ally over there!”

Bush: “Love the guy. Hey, let’s deregulate the airlines. Twenty years from now they’ll thank us.”

Ok, now that I’ve firmly destroyed my chances of maintaining any semblance of professional credibility (these stories get on the internet) let’s consider those Reagan policies. How’d the economic stuff work out?

Today the average CEO makes over 400 times as much as the average production worker (AFL-CIO). That’s a ten-fold increase since 1980. The top 1% of earners owns over 50% of America’s public stock. The gulf between rich and poor has widened a ton.

Reagan, and later Bush part II, slashed taxes on the wealthiest of wealthy, while spending the government into the ground. More and more American businesses are falling under the ownership of foreign interests who purchase U.S. companies with our own debt.

Starting with Reagan, Wall Street has been given increasing freedom to act ruthlessly around the world. The World Bank, currently run by Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz, continues to practice atrocious development policies in poor countries everywhere. Armed with Wall Street dollars, multinational corporations pillage the planet. Is Reagan directly to blame? Perhaps not, but his imprint on American politics is.

Still, Reagan is the eminently loved President; must have been one hell of a speaker.

Don’t take my word for it. Read a couple books about politics in the eighties, that’s what I did. I read some conservative blogs, some liberal blogs, some Op Eds by columnists I like and some I don’t and formulated my opinion that Reagan sucked. But I’m 23. I don’t know squat about the eighties. I could be full of it, so decide for yourself. Do you think Ronald Reagan measures higher than FDR? I don’t. Hell no.