Reagan rides into sunset
Published June 05, 2004
Well, he couldn't duck this one, as Ronald Reagan himself might have said.
After more than a decade of suffering with Alzheimer's, Reagan's passing must be a blessing to his devoted wife Nancy and his once-estranged children, whose names escaped him for years even before he was diagnosed, and look, now they're escaping me too.
No, wait. His was was Ron Reagan, good-lookin' ballarino turned talked show host, and his daughter was Princess Lei, and I believe she wrote a nasty book about her parents, Bing Crosby and Joan Crawford, or maybe that was somebody else's kid.
Anyway he's gone. My first memory of Ronald Reagan was in 1961, watching TV in the "rec room" in the middle of the afternoon because I would be home sick from school, a state of mind that, sadly, never really ended for me, and there on the television was Ronald Reagan, even then a has-been, introducing "Twenty Mule Team Borax Death Valley Theatre," followed by, not a B-movie, but an F-movie — which I watched because the alternatives were soap operas, which had organ players playing live, which was as weird back then as it sounds today: bad acting supported by even worse music.
Nevertheless Reagan was swashbuckling in the role of Commander in Chief, and he sure knew how to tell a joke and give a bite, and how to get shot. He never took himself seriously. Actually, he never took anything seriously, which made him virtually impossible not to like.
While his presidency spawned the current administration, it has not a speck of his sunny outlook, unmistakeable good nature or boundless optimism. Reagan's legacy may be nothing more than an attitude, or an image of how to act, but that's a lot to leave behind. His presidency aside, Ronald Reagan was a great president.
- Reagan rides into sunset
- Published: June 05, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: CW Fisher
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Raygun's legacy will be the final, all-encompassing triumph of Marketing over Substance, the extinction of Reality in favor of Ambiance.
We got an actor playing the President, a nation playing an audience, and World History as cheezy Hollywood plot.
(That "happy ending" thing might not be such a given, tho.)
...well...
yeah... he was a doddering idiot. The best of many, before and after, the idiot's idiot, a moron before being a moron was cool.
So often when people talk about the legacy of a passing leader what they're really talking about are their own biases. It's a little more to the point to ask yourself what, in a hundred years from now, people will say about Reagan -- long after all the pro or con passion he evoked among the living has died down. To me, it seems beyond question that the main thing, the overriding thing, will be that he ended the Cold War with Russia, and that he set into motion the end of Communism. People don't like to admit this, of course, because no one likes to think that President Potatohead, as I used to call him, ever did anything but hurt poor people. They say, instead, things like "Communism sank of its own weight," to which I'm inclined to say "Yes, especially after Reagan gave it cement boots." He gave it a push. I don't vote for Republicans and I never voted for Reagan, but I grudgingly found myself liking him personally, almost against my will. He was someone you could only hate in the abstract -- a point even his toughest political foes would probably admit. Was he smart? No. Did he lack substance? Certainly. Did he firmly believe in a handful of ideas? Yes. Were they good ideas? A few. Did America prosper as a result of his leadership? Some did, sure; some suffered. When it's all said and done, did he change the world for the better? When you add up all the pluses and minuses, the balance falls in his favor.
". . . he ended the Cold War with Russia, and that he set into motion the end of Communism."
How? Oh, I know. He did it by empowering the Mujahideen. Thanks, Mr. President.
re: Rodney Welch's history lesson:
On the contrary, history will reveal "Raygun ends Communism" as a huge myth.
Communism was headed for the grave when the Russians got their first taste of Pepsi, Levis, and rock and roll. It had nothing to do with Raygun.
And it didn't help that they had to wait in line for empty bread shelves.
In other news, I read that Nancy did Ronnie's horoscope yesterday; it said, "You'll be going on a long journey..."
PS: Fisher, what's yer sign?
I'm a gemini -- which means I'm skeptical of astrology.
The weird thing: IT'S TRUE!
"After more than a decade of suffering with Alzheimer's, Reagan's passing must be a blessing to his devoted wife Nancy and his once-estranged children, whose names escaped him for years even before he was diagnosed, and look, now they're escaping me too.
No, wait. His was was Ron Reagan, good-lookin' ballarino turned talked show host, and his daughter was Princess Lei, and I believe she wrote a nasty book about her parents, Bing Crosby and Joan Crawford, or maybe that was somebody else's kid."
Funny stuff, CWF
Kudos to kuro: best verse, couldn't get any verse. Rodney: fab graph, love the name. Shark, I'm a Gemini. I enjoy small animals, packing my mouth full of JumBlos and trying to find my horoscope while driving at high speeds. Dirtgrain, read up, man. Reagan didn't start the mujaddin. You're thinking Brian Wilson, who got a close assist from George Harrison.
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in true empire fashion
will the senate
decree
that Ronald Reagan
be made a
God?
It was the custom to consecrate popular emperors after their deaths, declaring them a minor god. Vestavia (23 AD) was heard to say as he was about to die, "Oh my, I fear I am about to become a god!"