My cousin Kirk made a comment earlier about the liberal love of John F. Kennedy. While neither of us were even born during the Kennedy era and thus have no first hand knowledge of what kind of president he was, I feel compelled to point out that not only was I of a reasonable age during the Reagan era, I even voted against him in 1984.
I’ve been reading a bit about Kennedy here on the plane, and it’s been pointed out by more than one of the writers that he was simply a good president — not a great one. Some insist that he would have been great had he lived longer, but we’ll never know.
No, what he is now is an icon and a martyr. He will always be a symbol of what might have been, even though he accomplished very little. Despite the claims that he was a civil rights president, he did little about it. That came with Lyndon Johnson. He stood up to the Soviet Union, but did it by bringing us to the brink of war. But he did kickstart the space program – perhaps his only great legacy.
Ronald Reagan has become another martyr like Kennedy — except that he’s still alive. I will admit that there were some things about Reagan I didn’t hate. For instance, I do believe that despite some of his views, he was probably a compassionate and kind man. But his conservatism was the beginning of the ideological asses that we are saddled with today.
His presidency — like Clinton’s — coincided with what I believe was a regular cycle of prosperity. I’m not sure he deserves any real credit for that. But despite that rosy economy, he ran up a massive deficit by taking a new tack in the Cold War: outspending them. In the end, that strategy worked like a charm and his legacy rightfully includes the credit for the end of the Cold War, and the “defeat” of the Soviet Union. He left behind a staggering deficit and struggling economy. In time, we might finally finish paying for it. But other than that world-changing event, what else did Reagan do? Iran-Contra? Ignoring the death toll from AIDS? Cutting taxes on the weathiest so that they could “trickle” the money down to the poor? Replacing the White House china?
I dunno. Reagan has definitely become the Republican’s JFK. But does either of them deserve such idolatry? Revisionist history, indeed.
Hummm, very good points in all (I could defend his economics in the wake of Carter inflation, but that’s just nitpicking) especialy the revisionist history.
I have heard very good arguments for others as well, such as Lincoln who had TWO emancipation proclimations, used as a weapon against the south and had nothing to do with freedom and Washington who basicaly sat around while the Continental Congress did all the thinking.
I wonder however, how our current president will be remembered… I will say that in the wake of 9/11 the administration was brilliant, I felt a sigh of relief that it was him and not Gore in office- but even as someone who sits pretty far right, I’d have to say that he just might replace Clinton as the slimiest snake to ever crawl in the oval office. My patients with the Iraq situation is growing very short…
I suppost we’ll have to wait and see….