During this time of crisis, when our country is faced with an economic meltdown, when unemployment nearly 10% in Ventura County, and when the nation is struggling to end two wars, fight global warming, and defuse an incendiary Middle East, our representative in Congress, Elton Gallegly, suggests we take a time out and honor Ronald Reagan.
That’s right, Gallegly and his Republican cronies want to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Reagan’s birth next year using federal resources and under federal auspices. This is the kind of thing normally reserved for someone like, say, Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentennial we celebrated on February 12 of this year.
Now Lincoln, one of the first Republicans, accomplished a lot of things during his presidency: he crushed a rebellion that nearly destroyed the nation, he signed an Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves held in rebel territory, and, despite his suspension of habeas corpus—permitted during time of insurrection—he honorably upheld the Constitution during a time of civil war.
Reagan, in contrast, violated the Constitution with an impunity that foreshadowed George W. Bush’s presidency. Remember the Iran-Contra affair? Students of history may recall that American hostages being held in Lebanon were freed in exchange for weapons—highly effective missiles, as it turns out. That’s right, Reagan brokered a deal whereby he sold Iran weapons in exchange for the release of the hostages. A dirty business that also happened to contravene American law.
Some of the money from the proceeds of the sale of the missiles went to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. Congress had explicitly prohibited any part of government from supporting the Contras, but this was subverted by the Reagan administration.
The American legislative branch of government and the people were in the dark about this until a Lebanese newspaper blew the story wide open, prompting Reagan to deny the charges. A week later he backtracked, admitting they were true, but stating that he didn’t know about them at the time.
The National Security Archive website describes the reaction of the American people: “Of all the revelations that emerged, the most galling for the American public was the president’s abandonment of the longstanding policy against dealing with terrorists, which Reagan repeatedly denied doing in spite of overwhelming evidence that made it appear he was simply lying to cover up the story.”
It was bad enough that a president would arm terrorists after having sworn in public never to even talk to them, but what he did with the money subverted the very Constitution he swore to protect and defend.
Reagan was lucky not to have been impeached. Many cabinet officials were charged with crimes. They all lied to protect Reagan, because impeachment was unthinkable to them. Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, also a co-consipirator, later pardoned the cabinet officials at the end of his term.
By and large the American people forgave Reagan, but Iran-Contra remained forever a black spot on his record. Bill Clinton’s peccadilloes are trifling in comparison.
Gallegly and his Republican colleagues long ago decided that Reagan was a saint. They have engaged in a systematic campaign to canonize him, naming all manner of public edifices after him, including what was formerly known as Washington National Airport, now renamed after the Gipper.
If the Republicans had their way, they would probably replace Lincoln’s chiseled face on Mount Rushmore with the aw-shucks grin our most famous actor-politician. After all, Republicans have thoroughly abandoned Lincoln’s legacy. They now see war as the first option, not the last; they no longer claim to need Constitutional authority to suspend habeas corpus; they are no longer concerned with the rights of minorities.
This partisan Republican campaign to elevate Reagan is clearly wrong. It seeks to turn a partisan hero into a nonpartisan emblem of America. We must oppose it vigorously.
On March 9, the dubious legislation Gallegly sponsored, HR131, passed the House. It was supported overwhelmingly by Republicans. Democrats, I am ashamed to say, voiced little opposition. Reagan remains widely popular. Reagan’s legacy is now viewed by many people through the opaque lens of nostalgia. Many credit him with bringing down the Berlin wall and winning the Cold War. He does deserve a lot of credit for this.
Reagan was a good man, but not a great man. He did, after all, make many of us feel good about ourselves after the malaise of the 1970s. He was charming. But he was a strong partisan, and his presidency ushered in an era of intolerant conservatism. Here is a short list of the sins of the Reagan administration, which demonstrates that we should not, in fact, portray him as a hero or allow our children to be brainwashed by Republican propaganda about him:
- He lied to the American people about his knowledge of Iran-Contra.
- He displayed a willingness to subvert the Constitution.
- He ignored the AIDS crisis that was ravaging America.
- He cut social programs to make way for a massive military buildup.
- His budget cuts hurt the poor; his tax cuts favored the rich.
- He began the foolish process of excessively deregulating businesses, which was the root cause our current economic woes.
- He oversaw a crumbling of the separation between church and state that prepared the way for the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
- He promulgated the odious doctrine that government is the enemy—that it should be reduced at all costs—even at the cost of financial meltdown, as we now know.
HR131 is now in the Senate. Please write your senators to ask them to kill this bill before it sees the light of day. Write to Gallegly to voice your displeasure for his sponsorship of this bill.
If the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act is passed into law, your children will be subjected to Republican propaganda as they are forced to learn a too-rosy version of Reagan’s story in their schools. They will certainly not learn about the Iran-Contra affair. They will instead learn that government is the problem, not the solution; that prosperity must begin at the top and might trickle down, eventually.
Do not stand for this, America. Stop the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act dead in its tracks.
We can respect Reagan for the good things he accomplished, for the dignity of his office, and for his valiant and ultimately successful fight against communism, but we should never allow Republicans to paint Reagan as an American saint. Someone so willing to trample our Constitution can never be called a hero
“Someone so willing to trample our Constitution can never be called a hero.”
This simple statement indicates that you are far more partisan than Mr. Reagan. Why don’t you take a good look at your new President, and see if you can defend his “trampling” of the Constitution.
Mr. Reagan may have made mistakes, and as a Libertarian I will easaily admit that. But he did more to shape history (i.e. the war of attrition that ended the Cold War) than any Democrat ever did.
I agree with you on a couple of points, primarily that Goldwater conservatives are often blinded by faith. But your statement that “He promulgated the odious doctrine that government is the enemy” is simply an indication that you are a big-government loving liberal who feels that government, not the individual, knows what is best.
You offer no sensible argument – only the ramblings of a liberal tweaker with his hand out. Reagan may not have been the best President ever, but he did more for the benefit of this country than all postwar Democrats combined.