Americans with a brain -- especially those who lived through the Reagan years -- know almost as a scientific fact that Ronald Reagan blew as a president. About the only bit of credit I'll give him is that he managed the optics of the slow descent of the Soviet Union into irrelevance rather well. The fact that guys like Peter Robinson ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") and Anthony R. Dolan ("evil empire") came up with great lines for the Great Communicator to use doesn't necessarily point to Reagan's expertise in foreign affairs. Reagan was fiercely anti-communist, but so was Joseph McCarthy.
Reagan doubled the national debt, helped to begin the long descent of unionism, began the long GOP mania with cutting taxes, and worked to foster both the reality of income inequality and the economic philosophy that enables it to this day, namely trickle-down, or supply-side, economics. And I'm not even to the Iran-Contra-arms-for-hostages scandal.
Reagan was profoundly wrong on a number of things that have haunted us for a long time and sent us into a thirty-plus-year spiral that, despite the break during the Clinton years, has yet to end. I suspect those who are attacking a new book on Reagan, The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein, are attacking him because of real or perceived -- or feared -- blasphemy toward Saint Ronnie.
On this, read Atrios, John Cole, Scott Lemieux, and Paul Krugman, who make a perfect blogging circle that criticizes, rightfully, this shockingly idiotic, both-sides-do-it, views-differ piece in the shameless New York Times by Alexandra Alter.
Maybe the Times should just get bought out by Rupert Murdoch and put us out of our misery.
BTW, for funsies listen to this scholarly presentation by Saint Ron as he eviscerates Medicare! Long before he became prez.
Medicare is so evil! And everybody hates it!
Demonizing socialized medicine: brains not required!
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