Brother Rogers
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Remembering Ronald Reagan

By Brother Rogers

Ronald Reagan will go down in history as a successful president.  His record leaves much to be praised and much to be criticized.  But in death, it is appropriate to focus on the good – to accentuate the positive.

Reagan is an icon to conservatives and a legend in American politics because he personifies the modern conservative movement.  While opinions about his policies vary, he left an unmistakable, indelible stamp on the American political landscape.  The Republican Party of today is not the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon. But 24 years after his election, it is still very much the party of Ronald Reagan.

Politicians are judged by whether or not they do what they say.  Reagan entered office with three stated goals: reduce taxes, build up the military and balance the budget.  He accomplished the first two with great success and failed miserably at the third.  Despite huge budget deficits, his economic policies, along with those of the Federal Reserve Board to reduce inflation, helped bring about the longest peacetime economic expansion since the end of World War II up to that time.

Perhaps Reagan’s greatest legacy was in foreign policy.  He accelerated an end to the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was an outspoken anti-communist who described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire,” but like Nixon’s opening China, he transformed Soviet-American relations by working productively with Gorbachev. Looking back, the Reagan defense buildup and deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe helped end the Cold War.

At the time, we did not see it coming.  When Reagan said in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” it seemed like wishful thinking and political rhetoric.  I was a graduate student at Princeton in 1988, and recall friends who were taking a course called “The German Question.”  On their final exam, they were asked to anticipate when East and West Germany would reunite.  One friend who made an A on that exam told me he estimated that it could happen within 50 years. History records that it happened one year later.  Reagan was probably the least surprised.

However, the substance of Ronald Reagan is not why Americans remember him so fondly.  Reagan had style.  Critics and supporters alike all admit that Reagan had a style that endeared him to a majority of the American people.  He was trained as an actor and had a star quality about him.

Reagan epitomized the eternal optimist.  One can argue that he had blinders on regarding many problems such as racism and AIDS, but his exuberance, cheerfulness and upbeat attitude were charming and infectious. 

Commentators in the news have said much about his sense of humor.  Surely, Reagan’s good humor added to his style and contributed to his success.  It is hard to dislike someone who was shot and says to his wife, “Honey, I forgot to duck,” or says to the surgeons, “I hope you are all Republicans.”  Most of us would be self-absorbed at such a time, and we admire those who are calm under such stress.

We say goodbye to Ronald Reagan, the cheerful man from humble origins who rose from humble beginnings to become the 40th president of the United States.  May his legacy inspire us to make a difference in our own world through public service.

Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works for the Stennis Center for Public Service.


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