On Saturday at the DFA/DFW information table, Delegate Joseph Ruth received a phone call from his brother saying that President Ronald Reagan had died, and that it was all over the news. That announcement spread like wildfire, with various reactions throughout the convention. Many were saddened by the news, some were elated. I have had a similar assortment and diversity of opinion on the email lists. I would like to present my own thoughts to the group.
There have been a lot of books about Ronald Reagan, and I have not read even one of them yet. I was 11 years old when Ronald Reagan won the presidential election of 1980. I grew up watching his administration change the face of the country in many ways, some positive and immediate, some not so positive and long term. But I was proud to be an American during those years, a position shared by most people in the country at that time. I didn't know enough about politics or the long term impacts of what was happening to be able to decide how to react.
Ronald Reagan was a great leader for our country. Part of what made him a great leader was that he energized everyone in the country to work harder to get involved. He was a patriot, he loved the flag, and he had an eternal optimism about our country and our future. People from all sides should recognize that we owe a lot to Ronald Reagan. The fall of the Soviet Union was as much due to the policies of the Reagan administration as their own failing economic system. But what I would like to focus on was not the President or his administration, but the man. Here is a quote from his speech opening the Ronald Reagan library in California:
"In my eighty years, I prefer to call that the forty-first anniversary of my thirty ninth birthday, I've seen what men can do for each other and do to each other, I've seen war and peace, feast and famine, depression and prosperity, sickness and health. I've seen the depth of suffering and the peaks of triumph and I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
He was right. Mankind can be 'good', and we should remember how Ronald Reagan won the election. "A new day has dawned". It dawned in 1980, and his passing marks the end of an era.
What that means is that this is the beginning of a new era!
President Reagan asked a question during his 1980 campaign; "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago." Congressman Jim McDermott mentioned this phrase at a town meeting that he held in April. According to McDermott, and I wholeheartedly agree with him, this phrasing of the question empowered the American People to reverse the course launched by John F. Kennedy in 1960. I have a different question to ask, one asked by Howard Dean and many others during the last year and a half.
Are WE better off now than we were 4 years ago?
This is the question the Democratic Party needs to ask the people as they decide to support John Kerry for President in the upcoming election. Are our children learning more now in school, and are they better prepared to be workers in the evolving world economy? Is health coverage available to more people, giving us the foundation of life that lets them pursue liberty and happiness? Is our relationship with our allies in the world community stronger now than it was 4 years ago?
The ends do not justify the means. The means lead us to the result. This is the underlying ideology that we should push forward into the debate. But we have to stand on the foundations built by all of our history, and Ronald Reagan was a vital piece of that foundation. He helped to build the ship, and even though I am still coming to an understanding of how much work we have to do to turn this ship of state around to avoid the rocks, I have to thank Ronald Reagan for helping to build the ship. There is only one more thing to say:
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Chad Lupkes
chadlupkes@earthlink.net
http://www.DemocracyforWashington.com/
PCO - SEA-46-2324
Seattle, WA
We are the ones that we have been waiting for.
Monday, June 07, 2004
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6 comments:
Chad, I don't agree with you, although I totally agree that he was due his moment of silence at the Washington State Democratic convention. After all, he did not diminish the presidency as GWB has.
And, there is one other point to be made, from the American Progress website:
FUTURE LEGACY OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Following the Marine barracks in Lebanon and the Iran Contra scandal, President Reagan took responsibility, saying, " this happened on my watch and "If there is to be blame...it properly rests here in this office and with this president. And I accept responsibility for the bad as well as the good."
If, in the midst of the current boo-hoo-hooing and gush of paeans
to "The Great Communicator," you would like a reminder of some of
the highlights of the oh-so-wonderful Ronnie years, here's a
great place to start:
http://www.quickchange.com/reagan/
My disgust for what Reagan and his minions did to this country
has been lessened neither by the passage of time nor by his
physical departure. "Don't speak ill of the dead?" Forget it!
Pre-Reagan, there was a political discourse in this country in
which both sides could actually communicate and achieve positive
results FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY. Prime example: Nixon, for
all his many faults, did have some positive accomplishments, such
as the creation of the EPA. It was Reagan, along with his minions
and his ultra-right wacko bible-thumping supporters, who set this
country on the course resulting in the extreme political
divisions we have today.
Somewhere in chimp heaven there may be a critter named Bonzo
who's shedding a tear for Ronnie's passing, but I'm as dry-eyed
as I can be.
Hi Chad,
Well, after I got done choking after reading your email, I am forced to respond. I have hated very few people in my life. I hated Ronald Reagan. He was a phony who destroyed far more than he "built." His legacy is GW Bush. Ronald Reagan is responsible for the California education system going from the best in the country to one of the worst. I was in college in California then. Reagan had the most corrupt administration in American history. 138 members of his administration were indicted. He was responsible for the Iran/Contra debacle that ruined Nicaragua and made us universally hated in Central and South America. For lots more facts, see http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060704A.shtml for a better overview. Chad, everything you see on TV is a lie. Everything. Reagan wan't even a good actor. When he was president of the Screen Actors Guild, he cooperated with McCarthy and helped write the infamous blacklist. He made decisions based on Nancy Reagan's astrologer's advice. Please. He was a disaster for this country. Never doubt it.
Well, I guess this is what you get when people new to politics jump in before doing all of their homework. If I stopped working log enough to read history and get a true picture of where we have been and why, I would finish sometime in the late 22nd century. I know that everything on TV is a lie now, but I didn’t when I watched it in the 80’s. I don’t own a Television any more.
What made me write the essay was the pure negative comments that I’ve seen posted everywhere. I certainly don’t doubt that there were a lot of things that Reagan’s administration did and he did as an individual that caused a lot of people to hate him. I probably would as well if I had seen the same things and experienced the time the same way that you did. I didn’t. So what I’m trying to do is get us beyond “I hated the guy”, and start to get us focused on what we’re going to do about it. I despise what George Bush and the people in his administration are doing, and I will do what I have to do to make sure that he loses this election so we can start to clean up the mess. But I don’t waste my time or energy hating him. He’s not worth it.
Saying President Reagan was a great president is similar to saying that General Patton was a great general. Reagan was the President for 8 years, and the people who voted for him thought he was great. He changed the world. Roosevelt and Truman were able to stop General Patton from continuing on to Moscow. We were not able to stop Reagan from doing what he did. But both of these men were steadfast in the belief in what they were doing, and both were ‘great’. Leading an army or a country in the wrong direction can’t change the fact that they were strong leaders.
We need to focus on our current leaders and make sure that they understand that we expect them to lead us in the right direction from now on, and that we will hold them accountable if they don’t. That’s what I want to focus on. I hope you’ll understand my position and help me.
Well, I've been listening to KUOW. The Conversation between 1pm and 2pm has spent the last hour giving people a chance to talk about memories of Ronald Reagan from the 1980's.
Boy did I put my foot in my mouth.
I still want to focus on the positive and the future, but I'm very sorry that I put forward the notion that Reagan's terms in office were 'great' in any shape or form. I said in my first post that I didn't pay attention to politics in the 1980's, and that I had not done my homework. I think I'll do some more reading.
First of all, thanks to Chad for a great letter. It was thoughtful, well written, and stirred a great deal of communication, all things I respect.
I was 26 when Regan was first elected. Personally, I disliked him when he became president, and my opinion got worse as time went on. There are still persistent rumors that the Republicans colluded with the Iranians to continue holding the hostages and prevent an unpleasant "October Surprise." I always thought that the demise of the Soviet Union had as much to do with Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis as Regan's handling of the economic crisis. Regan played a significant part, but was only able to do so because of all that had been done before. Like Truman in WWII, he gets credit for ending it, not winning it.
I could never understand why everyone called him the great communicator. He always struck me as a bad actor reading lines. He could not hold a candle to the true orators of our time like John Kennedy or Martin Luther King. For the record, I do not have to agree with people to consider them great talkers. In my opinion, any objective top 10 list of 20th century speakers would have to include Hitler. If you have ever seen newsreel footage of him you know that you don't even have to speak the language to see his passion and commitment and to know that his message has excited his audience. Vile and contemptible as he was, ya gotta admit he could work a crowd.
At the same time, he was still the president of the United States. I was inside the hall when his death was announced and was a bit frustrated when the Chair had trouble getting people to maintain a respectful moment of silence. A moment is a small thing to ask for anyone who had the courage to take on one of the toughest jobs in the world. Decency would demand no less of a Republican convention if Clinton died. (I doubt we would get it, but decency would demand it.)
That being said, I am disgusted with how the Republicans are milking this. On the news tonight they said that the House of Representatives has suspended consideration of all bills this week and instead will spend the time eulogizing Regan. No one is great enough to justify bringing the US congress to a halt for a week. The bankrupt policies of the Republicans leave little to look forward too, so they would rather divert peoples attention by looking back.
I heard someone on NPR this morning state the opinion that Regan's legacy will include the fact that he energized a lot of people to get into politics. Some because they agreed with him and some because they opposed him. Whatever we think of Regan, his time is now passed. Let's pay him the honor of a moment of silence, and then move on to make this a better country.
Posted on behalf of Bryan Kesterson
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