By:Jerry Burke
The Gipper, after suffering the horrible effects of Alzheimer's for a decade, passed away over the weekend. I was a little young to have much concern about his administration while it was in power, and with my parents both being Republicans, I was never inclined to dislike him.
In fact, even after my conversion to the just-left-of-center ideology of Bill Clinton, I still found it hard to speak ill of Reagan. Granted, his policies laid the foundations for our current perils (deficit spending, ignoring the AIDS crisis, an alliance with Saddam Hussein and teaching Osama bin Laden the tools of the terrorist trade in Afghanistan), but at the time, we were in a struggle against the "evil empire" of the USSR. In hindsight, he was wrong on a lot of things. But that's hindsight for you.
From justifying the invasion of Grenada by stating that he was saving Christmas (Grenada is the largest producer of nutmeg, a key ingredient in eggnog, without which, apparently, we wouldn't have Christmas) to the microphone test that startled a nation ("We begin bombing in five minutes"), he always seemed to have the right line for the right time.
One such time has always stuck with me. After the Tower Report on the Iran-Contra affair almost destroyed his administration, Reagan, who may already have been suffering from memory loss due to his illness or just plain lying, went on national television and did the unthinkable. "A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that-s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not," said Reagan. "There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses. It was a mistake."
A president admitting a mistake. I wish I had taken a picture, because I don't think it has happened since. Even though I disagreed with nearly all of his policies and detested most of his lieutenants, that was, at very least, a Trumanesque moment.
What I can say is that Ronald W. Reagan, while flawed and a terrible actor, was a charismatic leader when the country needed it. This week you'll hear a lot of praise heaped upon him from both sides of the political aisle, and not entirely unjustified. But history will be the final judge of the Reagan years. Love him or hate him, he was a man to be reckoned with and, maybe even begrudgingly, respected.
