Read Senior Editor Susan J. Douglas's 8 reasons to make a tax-deductible donation to In These Times.
ZoomZoom InZoom OutPrintDiscuss
Views > June 19, 2007

The Enduring Lies of Ronald Reagan

Though the GOP continues to canonize the fortieth president, we can’t forget his legacy as a liar and a foreign policy flop

By Susan J. Douglas

The canonization of Ronald Reagan rests crucially on one thing Reagan himself did well: forgetting the facts. It seems timely to exhume a few.
Tags   

Ronald Reagan was a saint, a commanding leader, the gold standard of principled conservatism against whom all current and future Republicans should be measured. This is the new mantra coming out of the Republican race for the presidency as the current crop of candidates scramble, quite understandably, to distance themselves from the walking disaster that is George W. Bush.

In the Fox News-hosted “debate” among the Republican hopefuls, Ron Paul, Rudi Giuliani and others were quick to wrap themselves in the Reagan mantle. When Fred Thompson—actor turned politician—entered the race, he evoked huge sighs of relief among Republicans, who see him as the one best able to recapture the Gipper’s magic. Coincidentally, Reagan’s diaries, edited by Douglas Brinkley, have just been published and also seek to cast him as “a true American leader”.

While much of the neocon agenda is in tatters right now, certainly one of its most successful achievements has been the canonization of Ronald Reagan, which rests crucially on one thing Reagan himself did so well: forgetting the facts. So it’s time to exhume a few.

First to go is the myth that Reagan was the most popular president since FDR. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting reminds us, “During the first two years of Reagan’s presidency, the public was giving President Reagan the lowest level of approval of all modern elected presidents. Reagan’s average first-year approval rating was 58 percent—lower than Dwight Eisenhower’s 69 percent, Jack Kennedy’s 75 percent, Richard Nixon’s 61 percent and Jimmy Carter’s 62 percent.” At the end of his second year, (remember the Reagan recession?) Reagan’s approval rating was 41 percent; after the Iran-Contra scandal was revealed, Reagan’s approval rating stood at 46 percent. His approval rating for his entire presidency was lower than Kennedy’s, Eisenhower’s and even Johnson’s, and at times he was one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history.

Also forgotten is Reagan’s own embarrassing propensity to just make things up. Reagan was a dunce and a fabricator. One of his most famous assertions was, “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do,” and he maintained, wrongly, that sulfur dioxide emitted from Mount St. Helens was greater than that emitted by cars over a 10-year period. (In one day, cars emit 40 times what Mount St. Helens released in a day even at its peak activity.) In 1985, Reagan praised the P.W. Botha’s apartheid regime of South Africa for eliminating segregation, a blunder then-Press Secretary Larry Speakes had to correct a few days later.

Other examples abound: During a 1983 Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony Reagan told a story about military heroism that New York Daily News columnist Lars-Erik Nelson wrote never happened. Nelson had checked the citations on all 434 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded during WWII. The scene Reagan described did appear, however, in the 1944 film A Wing and a Prayer. Larry Speakes’ response? “If you tell the same story five times, it’s true.”

And let’s not forget the wages of “trickle down” economics and “Reaganomics,” from which we have still not recovered. In 1982, the Congressional Budget Office found that taxpayers earning under $10,000 lost an average of $240 from Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts, while those earning more than $80,000 gained an average of $15,130. By that fall, the jobless rate hit 10.1 percent—the worst in 42 years, and a year later 11.9 million were out of work. In 1983, the country’s poverty rate rose to 15 percent, the highest level since the mid-’60s. In 1984, a congressional study reported that cuts in welfare had pushed more than 500,000 people—the majority of them children—into poverty. Then-Attorney General Ed Meese’s response? “I don’t know of any authoritative figures that there are hungry children … people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that’s easier than paying for it.”

The neocons would have us believe that Reagan was also a foreign policy genius. Space prevents me from detailing his administration’s adventures and blunders in Grenada, in Beirut and the visit to the Nazi cemetery in Bitburg. So let’s just remember aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, whom Reagan likened to the Founding Fathers, and the revelation that the CIA had produced a manual that taught them, in part, how to kidnap and “neutralize” government officials. Iran-Contra—the secret and illegal selling of weapons to our sworn enemy, Iran, to then fund the Contras—was both a constitutional disaster and a foreign policy blunder about which we were asked to believe Reagan knew nothing. His administration was also thoroughly corrupt: Eight senior officials in his administration were indicted.

Fabrication, lying, cruel and counterproductive policies at home and abroad, bloating of the deficit, widening the gap between rich and poor: These are the Reagan legacy. As Republican candidates seek to wear his mantle, their Democratic opponents need to remind Americans exactly what they are putting on.

Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan and author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women.

More information about Susan J. Douglas
Tags   

  • subscribe to print magazine

  • Reader Comments

    Speaking of facts, lets look at a few.

    1) The Economy over the last century: The early Reagan years were an inflection point for the US economy, the start of an economic boon that was unprecedented and still persists. Look at the Dow over the last century. Post depression to mid 60s line of best fit showed consistent growth. Mid 60s to 80 flat - no growth. Early 80s to the present, a new line of best fit representing consistent accelerated growth. We have enjoyed the best of times for the last quarter century. Reaganomics worked. Pure and simple.

    2) 80’s metric: Election results are a pretty fair representation of popularity. Look at the red and blue state map of the 1984 election. All of the states were red except for one, Mondale’s own Minnesota. And the results there were close: with over 2 million votes Reagan lost by less than 4,000 votes. That election was the closest thing to a unanimous electoral vote that has ever happened in this nation’s history.

    3) Recent poll: The Discovery Channel and AOL recently polled the country to name the greatest Americans. With a sample size of 2.4 million Americans voting, Democrats and Republicans and Independents all included, Ronald Reagan beat out every other American who has ever lived.

    Bash Bush. Rip on the Neocons. But hands off the Gipper. He was one of the greatest presidents we have ever had. When he took office our country was at rock bottom ... thank you Nixon and thank you Jimmy. Within minutes Iran returned the hostages. It took a little longer to turn around the economy but he did that and gave us back our “shining city on the hill.” Did I mention he also won the Cold War without firing a shot?

    Reading this article, I am reminded about one of my favorite Reagan quotes: “it’s not that liberals are ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

    Posted by bulldog on Jun 19, 2007 at 7:46 AM

    Ronald Reagan talked like a Libertarian and did not walk as a Libertarian.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyXW1hb-JQg

    Ron Paul has not tried to be the next Ronald Reagan.  That said, you failed the Ron Paul test.  I’ve dumped many media sources because of their mis-informayion and trashing Ron Paul.  Others, like yours, which is new to me, will not get my subscription.  I’m finding new media sources and supporting those who pass the Ron Paul test.  TRUTH.

    Posted by Jeanette Doney on Jun 19, 2007 at 9:35 AM

    bulldog,

    If you would like to discuss facts, then let’s look at yours:

    1.  Two words for this point:  deficit spending

    2.  Granted, the electoral vote was almost unanimous, being a winner take all format.  But the popular vote was 58.8% to 40.6%.  Not quite the ‘unanimous’ election that you would like to claim.

    3.  Last that I checked, self-selected polls were not the paragon of scientific accuracy.  This is an ‘opinion poll’ not a fact.

    As for the Cold War being won, when I grew up in the 80’s we condemned the Soviet Union for their internal passports and surveillance society.  They were bogged down in a war in Afghanistan that was their undoing.  Twenty years later we are looking a lot more like the country we claim to have defeated than the proud nation that we once were.

    Hands off nobody.  Even the great Founders of this nation should be looked at critically.  Jefferson kept his slaves.  FDR interred Japanese-Americans.

    We do not live in the ‘shining city on the hill’, we live in post-Katrina America which is what we get after 27 years of government modeled on your hero.

    Posted by torpedofish on Jun 19, 2007 at 11:20 AM

    “Saint Ronnie” has become a somewhat enduring myth perpetrated by a frustrated bunch of GOPers who had no answer for JFK and Camelot.  “Saint Ronnie” was launched whole cloth to give the GOP sheeple an idol to worship. 

    But, the truth is that “Saint Ronnie” was pretty much detached from reality.  He was a “B” movie actor who played the role of President as he read from the clever script handed to him by his speech writers.  He wasn’t all that bright to begin with.  When he was running for President, the WSJ interviewed a close aide to then Gov. Reagan who was asked to comment on his intellectual ability.  The answer, “You could wade through Ronnie’s deepest thoughts and never get your ankles wet.”

    It was revealed publically, after he left office, that Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.  Well, anyone with half a brain could do some counting and figure out that based on information available, Reagan had symptoms of his disease much, much earlier.  Like when he was in office.

    My Congressman, Les Aspin, spent a lot of time in the White House because of his committee appointment relating to defense.  He said that he could not understand why Reagan needed fifteen minutes between meetings to get briefed.  Without that briefing, he would walk into the meeting and be totally unprepared.  Why couldn’t he remember the people in the room, the subject matter and so on?  Mr Aspin asked WH staffers who told him that it was Reagan’s habit from his days as a movie actor. 

    The director would yell, “cut”, Ronnie would study his line for the next scene and, “Ready, Action, Camera”.

    But, the truth was much more revealing.  He, in his first term, had the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.  It was well-known by the Reagan inner-circle and instead of telling all, ran him for a second term.  It was much harder to cover up during the second term, but they did their best.  However, there is tape that clearly reveals the deteriorated state of Ronnie’s intellect.  Some has appeared on TV news.

    Reagan was the biggest work of fiction the GOP has ever created.  But, then Corporate America prefers their Presidents not to be too smart because it’s easier to control them.  Therefore, Reagan was perfect.

    So is Bush.

    Posted by calvinthecat on Jun 19, 2007 at 11:39 AM

    FACT: Reagan’s 525 electoral votes (out of of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate.

    Posted by bulldog on Jun 19, 2007 at 11:56 AM

  • extended discussion >>>Continued...

    Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 56 posts.

Join Here
Member Login

Forgot password?

Article Appeared in this Issue

Full contents
Past issues


Donate now
and get a
free, signed copy
of David Sirota's New York Times bestseller The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington

Popular Discussions