now he’s gone<\/a>.<\/p>\nI don’t know what to make of Reagan, to be honest. He’s lionized by the conservative set, and though under his watch the Cold War was finally won, and the GOP finally got the idea of tax cuts as major government policy across, it also marked the end of the Republican Party as a relatively moderate and collegial force, more interested in, yes, defense and finance matters than in decreeing who got to sleep with whom, or why “creation science” ought to be given equal time. As such, I can hardly join in the huzzahs.<\/p>\n
Still, he was president. Honor the office, if not the man. I don’t see Reagan as the “5th face on Rushmore” sort of colossus that some paint him. Nor was he Satan incarnate. He was, in some ways, George Dubya Bush, only with a lot more charisma. And, whether you think of him as a great man, or a simpleton, whether you shared his beliefs or not, he always came across as truly sincere and positive about them, as someone who really was interested in helping others, and the country.<\/p>\n
And maybe that’s not a bad epitaph for anyone. Let alone a president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I met Ronald Reagan once, during his “wilderness years” between the California governorship and the presidency. As part of some high school speech contest or another, he spoke at a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31898,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/24\/that-notorious-anti-american-ronald-reagan.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":0},"title":"That Notorious Anti-American, Ronald Reagan","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Dec-12 3:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 47 in a Series, as we have Reagan, in 1994, helping lobby (and successfully so) for passage of the Assault Weapons Ban.Now, I don't consider Reagan's imprimatur on anything particularly swaying, but the official Republican hagiography still has him as the Biggest Influence of Forever, and All-Time American Patriot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26548,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/thank-goodness-ronald-reagan-ushered-in-an-era-of-law-and-order.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":1},"title":"Thank goodness Ronald Reagan ushered in an era of law and order","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-12 3:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"And privatized prisons and \"three strikes and you're out\" and War on Drugs and ... #ddtbReshared post from +Occupy UniversityOccupy the Industrial Prison ComplexThe statistics don't lie. Just a few years after changing the traditional 'philosophy of business', profiteering off crime became acceptable. Today the US with 5% of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13648,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/31\/ken_duberstein_for_barack.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":2},"title":"Ken Duberstein for Barack Obama","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Oct-08 5:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One of\u00a0Ronald Reagan's closest aides\u00a0is voting for Barack Obama. Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30686,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/18\/on-tip-and-gip-and-fighting-and-cooperation.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":3},"title":"On Tip and Gip and fighting and cooperation","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Oct-12 2:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting look back on Reagan and O'Neill by the latter's son. Embedded Link Frenemies: A Love Story Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan fought tooth and nail - until the American people needed compromise. Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30242,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/13\/and-people-tell-me-the-gop-hasnt-changed.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":4},"title":""And people tell me the GOP hasn't changed"","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Sep-12 12:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of course, neither Reagan nor Bush, Sr, would be welcome in Republican campaign politics today. Embedded Link Quotes For The Day \"This is the time for us as a nation and a people to stand united,' - Ronald Reagan, Republican candidate, after president Carter's botched mission to save US hostages.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48165,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/16\/immigration-amnesties-past-and-present.html","url_meta":{"origin":6018,"position":5},"title":"Immigration amnesties, past and present","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 16-Nov-14 1:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As the article notes, Reagan and Bush Sr both used executive orders to extend immigration reform and amnesty far beyond anything that had been authorized by Congress. Obama is saying he'll do the same, which is causing folk on the Right to flip out, shake their fists at \"tyranny,\" and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Reagan\"](\"http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/photos\/NY14306060413-small.jpg\" "\\"Reagan\\"")
I met Ronald Reagan once, during his “wilderness years” between the California governorship and the presidency. As part of some high school speech contest or another, he spoke at a luncheon. He had his trademarked 3×5 cards, and it was, it seemed, yet another political, simplistic, sound-bite sort of speech. I was more impressed by George Takei (who was involved in LA politics at the time) also being there.<\/p>\n