Saturday, November 08, 2003
In Which I Say Nice Things About Ronald Reagan for the First Time Maybe Ever
William Wineke has written a column for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison since I was a kid. I don't see him often anymore, but his is the kind of column I would like to get paid to write--about whatever strikes his fancy in a particular week, about someone he met, a story he heard, or a tip he received. Today he writes about the cancellation of the CBS miniseries The Reagans, and says: "It's a strange thing about one part of the conservative movement: The more power it gets, the more fearful it becomes of any dissenting view. Which was not at all the case with the real Ronald Reagan, who didn't seem at all intimidated by the idea someone might disagree with him."
Indeed, it's hard to imagine Reagan getting as upset by the miniseries flap as the cultural warriors fighting for his honor have. In screeching for the miniseries' cancellation, they've shown again their desire to silence anything that doesn't conform to their narrow conception of what's acceptable for fear it will disrupt their lockstep march toward perfect conformity. But Ronald Reagan was not a soldier in their war. While he spoke openly of Christian faith and American values, he did not seem pathologically obsessed with imposing those values on others. Instead, he spoke of them as if they were natural and worthwhile, something people around the world would come to as a matter of common sense if only they were shown the way. That's vastly different from the current breed of Shi'ite Republicans, who believe in using force and coercion to impose their beliefs, which they could get past very few people in a fair fight.
I never voted for Reagan and I didn't like him much--I believed then and now that he should have been impeached for Iran-Contra--but I never saw in him the shallowness of Bush or the ruthless venality of Cheney and Rumsfeld. As Wineke observes, Reagan led by talking about hope, and you could see he believed what he said. Maybe, says the cynic in me, it was his training as an actor, but I really don't think so. When Bush talks about hope, it sounds false. You can see in his eyes that what motivates him most of all is fear. When it comes to inspiring Americans to achieve the best in ourselves as a people, George W. Bush couldn't be less like Ronald Reagan.
Some conservatives believe that Bush is completing the Reagan Revolution. I don't think Reagan, the ex-New Deal Democrat, would have gone so far. And if Reagan were on the ballot with Bush, I'd vote for Reagan--even with the Alzheimer's.
William Wineke has written a column for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison since I was a kid. I don't see him often anymore, but his is the kind of column I would like to get paid to write--about whatever strikes his fancy in a particular week, about someone he met, a story he heard, or a tip he received. Today he writes about the cancellation of the CBS miniseries The Reagans, and says: "It's a strange thing about one part of the conservative movement: The more power it gets, the more fearful it becomes of any dissenting view. Which was not at all the case with the real Ronald Reagan, who didn't seem at all intimidated by the idea someone might disagree with him."
Indeed, it's hard to imagine Reagan getting as upset by the miniseries flap as the cultural warriors fighting for his honor have. In screeching for the miniseries' cancellation, they've shown again their desire to silence anything that doesn't conform to their narrow conception of what's acceptable for fear it will disrupt their lockstep march toward perfect conformity. But Ronald Reagan was not a soldier in their war. While he spoke openly of Christian faith and American values, he did not seem pathologically obsessed with imposing those values on others. Instead, he spoke of them as if they were natural and worthwhile, something people around the world would come to as a matter of common sense if only they were shown the way. That's vastly different from the current breed of Shi'ite Republicans, who believe in using force and coercion to impose their beliefs, which they could get past very few people in a fair fight.
I never voted for Reagan and I didn't like him much--I believed then and now that he should have been impeached for Iran-Contra--but I never saw in him the shallowness of Bush or the ruthless venality of Cheney and Rumsfeld. As Wineke observes, Reagan led by talking about hope, and you could see he believed what he said. Maybe, says the cynic in me, it was his training as an actor, but I really don't think so. When Bush talks about hope, it sounds false. You can see in his eyes that what motivates him most of all is fear. When it comes to inspiring Americans to achieve the best in ourselves as a people, George W. Bush couldn't be less like Ronald Reagan.
Some conservatives believe that Bush is completing the Reagan Revolution. I don't think Reagan, the ex-New Deal Democrat, would have gone so far. And if Reagan were on the ballot with Bush, I'd vote for Reagan--even with the Alzheimer's.
