Why Reagan Matters: A Democrat's View

I possess the dubious distinction of having worked against Ronald Reagan in every one of his campaigns for Governor of California and President.

I possess the dubious distinction of having worked against Ronald Reagan in every one of his campaigns for Governor of California and President. Coming up short in four elections, I was reduced to being a member of the loyal opposition, and to resisting most of his policy initiatives in Sacramento and Washington, DC.

Because I still find fault with so much of Reagan’s philosophy and agenda, I cannot subscribe to the proposition that he was a great President. Like other partisans---left and right---I prefer to reserve that distinction for people with whom I agree.

I also cannot subscribe to the notion that “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War”, but I am happy to acknowledge that he hastened its end. I wish that his acolytes would recognize that Reagan’s national security policies were largely extensions of the bipartisan consensus embraced by every post-World War II President, from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter. Forty five years’ worth of allied political leaders, voters and taxpayers, diplomats and men and women in uniform “won” the Cold War; they deserve at least as much credit for that accomplishment as does Ronald Reagan.

At the same time, it strikes me that no rational person can deny that Reagan’s dealings with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev were both pivotal and historic. Perhaps ironically, Ronald Reagan clearly subscribed to John F. Kennedy’s contention that we should “never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate”.

I am far less charitable when it comes to Ronald Reagan’s impact on American domestic life. His embrace of “supply side” economics caused our national debt to explode. Even worse, Reagan and his lieutenants knew exactly what they were doing; their pursuit of that course was one of the most cynical and fateful political acts in memory. Moreover, those policies accelerated and exacerbated the growing chasm between an extremely small slice of very wealthy Americans and the rest of the citizenry. This unfortunate fact of economic life and its dangerous societal consequences will haunt our society for a long, long time.

Also not to be forgotten is the fact that the Reagan Administration’s systematic undoing of national energy policies enacted during Jimmy Carter’s presidency left us more dependent on unstable sources of foreign oil, and contributed to the degradation of the global environment. These, too, are realities that will plague us for generations to come---if we’re lucky!

Despite these severe criticisms and disagreements, however, I believe that Ronald Reagan was one of the most consequential political figures in American history. More than any other single individual of his era, Reagan’s views and leadership shaped the public debate and discourse for the final third of the 20th century. His legacy---like it or not--- remains a powerful force in American politics (although one suspects that he would be appalled at the coarseness and viciousness of the contemporary debate).

My opinions of Ronald Reagan are and have long been complex and nuanced, and have often been at odds with those of friends and colleagues. Even when in battle against him, I respected and admired Reagan’s abilities, and I honor his unwavering devotion to our country.

In fact, during the run up to---and during the course of---the 1980 presidential campaign, I constantly urged my Democratic teammates not to underestimate Reagan, and to shy away from assaults that were designed to demonize him. I had seen those mistakes made many times in California, and I had no doubt that they would prove equally disastrous on the national level. At one point in the spring of 1980 I went so far as to enlist a group of seasoned California politicians, including the late Jess Unruh and Bob Moretti, to bolster my case---all to no avail. In fact, during one memorable exchange, our campaign pollster, Pat Caddell, decided to lecture Unruh and Moretti on just how wrong they were when it came to Ronald Reagan!

To those Democrats who insist, even today, on denigrating Reagan as a lightweight or worse, I frequently counter, “If Ronald Reagan was such a dunce, how is it that he beat the crap out of us Democrats in two runs for Governor of California and two campaigns for President? If he was a doofus, what does that make us?”

In this year of commemoration, let’s hope that all of us might benefit from serious thought and discussion about the span and impact of Ronald Reagan’s life, and what we might learn from it. Those who fault, as well as those who exalt, his role in history should honor President Reagan’s memory by participating in the ceremonies and in the conversations that will occur during 2011.

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