The Left Starts to Rethink Reagan
WILL: The key is to understand the economy of leadership: you should have ideas, and they should be clear, but most of all they should be few—three at the most. Re-arm the country, cut the weight of government and win the cold war. After that we'll see. That's what Napoleon said: "You win and then you see."
THOMAS: Sean, for somebody who's associated with the liberal academic establishment, you're being very complimentary of Reagan. Surely there's something about him you don't like.
WILENTZ: Ronald Reagan made some very grave errors while in office. I think the Iran-contra affair showed that [the] care with which he'd protect the Constitution was not what it ought to have been. He was overcome in that case by his desire to get the hostages out of Lebanon and by those who said they could do it. I don't think the S&L [savings and loan] crisis was so much a matter of Reagan as his administration. There were plenty of warnings that something was going terribly wrong. Deregulation was an example where some things went right but a lot went wrong. On the issue of taxes, he brought things down to a point where things got way out of hand.
THOMAS: It seems one of his legacies in the political arena is never raising taxes, that that's a sin.
WILL: He raised them all the time.
WILENTZ: Yeah, he had the biggest tax raises in history practically.
WILL: He also, as governor of California, signed the most liberal abortion law in American history. He got away with that, too. Maybe that's something Sean should explore in his next volume. How do great leaders get away with it?
WILENTZ: But there's a difference that I think Reagan understood on the tax issue. There's a difference between raising taxes and lowering marginal rates. He put his emphasis on the first. He went public to say, "We can't do this anymore." But that is not what he'd gone to the mat for. And in fact, going to the mat for something else, he structurally changed things much more dramatically. Taxes can go up and down, but he understood that a change in the system is different than a change that happens year to year. So, I think that's part of his leadership style: "All right, I have to do this now to get something bigger down the line."
THOMAS: Sean, you talked about how the old Reagan coalition is splintering, but the Democrats are having trouble maintaining their base because there's such a thing as a Reagan Democrat who may vote Republican. Is that part of Reagan's legacy?
WILENTZ: The first Reagan Democrat was probably Ronald Reagan, who understood very well the legacy of the Democratic Party and how it had changed in 1968. What we're seeing is a fight that's been going in the Democratic Party for 40 years.
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Member Comments
Posted By: cornsyrup123 @ 05/15/2008 2:53:34 PM
Comment: To quote bushwacked: "wilentz is wrong, reagan was not a great president"
As a democrat, I always feel awkward supporting Ronald Reagan, but here goes: Keeping in mind that through good governance (hopefully Democratic come November), though not overnight, we have the power to slowly but surely change all of the problems you mentioned about America. The bottom line is if it wasn't for Reagan, one of two worse things would have happened.
1) Worst case scenario: mutually assured destruction, brought on by perpetuated tension with the former Soviet Union. That's an obvious one.
2) More likely: ONGOING tension with the Soviet Union, in ADDITION to all of the domestic problems you mentioned, not to mention the unfortunate battle with Islamic fundamentalism.
So, although he may have initiated some of the most tumultuous problems we as a nation have ever faced, as far as I'm concerned, his successful negotiations with the Soviets overpowered them all in the sense that we might not even be here to SEE those problems were it not for him.
Posted By: Arturo55 @ 05/13/2008 11:21:54 PM
Comment: The fog of memory displayed by Sean Wilentz when he mentions Ronald Regan's "grave errors" is truly myopic. He mentions two, Iran Contra, and S&L while artfully skipping over the true passionate angst of democrats at the time. These stories dominated the news for many months and the hint of skulduggery regarding the timing of the Iranian hostage release with the election of 1980 has yet to be fully explored. Wilentz needs to be reminded that this was the source of the term "October Surprise" An artful example of the modern Republican party's dastardly penchant for stealing elections, neatly surrounded on either side by the cloddish Watergate burglars and the impudence of the Supreme Court in 2000.
Lost in the storm and fury of the time, Reagans disembowlment of his predecessors energy initiatives, is arguably the single most "grave" error, which has reached forward twenty eight years and is just now begining to bear full fruit, poisoned fruit. Carter was far ahead of his time on this issue and had the "smiling" Reagan relished the removal of the solar waterheaters from the White house roof signalling the end of the nacient alternative energy movement, dead practically at birth. Thoughtfullness mocked and jeered by the rigid rightwing. Thousands of small contractors thrown out of work overnight. On recollection a bit reminiscient of "Fulton's Folly". And now of course its all the rage. Even the bumbling dry hole oil boy president, certain to be the laughing stock of the future, provided the tears ever dry, has timidly jumped on board, lets hope that boat is not the Titanic. The real tragedy was the loss of thirty years of research and development backed by the full faith of a formerly forward thinking nation. We likely would have been enjoying sweet fruit of that effort, reaping the boundless quantity of energy that nature provides for free. Therein lies the key to the story. Sold, for Hollywood smiles, greedy bottom lines, and a pack of Limbaugh's lies, our future.
Posted By: bushwhacked @ 05/13/2008 2:00:07 PM
Comment: wilentz is wrong, reagan was not a great president. the fact is he started us down the road that gw and clinton amplified. when you put regulators in that are basically corporate hacks you get the enormous mess that is america today. here are problems that cannot be solved: our housing crisis, are enormous national debt, our extremely poor educational system, our idiotic health care system, our inability to make anything except weapons systems, the growing prison industrial complex, the disappearance of the middle class, jobs going to foreign countries, and on and on. now we, like others empires before us, are right on the verge of collapsing. rome went all over the ancient world colonizing everyone they could until the financial stress did them in. napoleon and hitler didn't learn from history. neither did britain. it's comical how mcdope thinks he will continue the tin man's empire building . a little clue for you john, russia and china both have about 1/2 trillion in us $ surplus. we have about 900 billion deficit. reagan, bush and mcwar democrats always whine about those tax and spend democrats. their bought and paid for media never mention that the republicans out tax the demos 5-1. they just call it defense and the war on terror. nothing could be farther from the truth, we are much weaker strategically because of our grave economic weakness. the europeans laugh at how stupid our policies are, i mean cmon they work half as hard as we do, have health care for everyone, have 6 weeks vacation a year, free higher deucation up to a phd. teamsters have always been for republicans as long as i can remember. what did it get you- $4 a gallon diesel fuel. so if you once had a30-40 dollar an hour job and now work at wallmart, cheer up, you deserve it. i have made boocoo bucks and am set for life, but if your middle class and voted for reagan, bush or clinton, your class is gonna disappear. be sure and put your dunce cap back on on your way out.