June 8, 2004
A DEMOCRAT AND HIS JOB:
Yes, that was his job (Mark Steyn, 6/08/04, Jewish World Review)
“The Great Communicator” was effective because what he was communicating was self-evident to all but our decayed elites: “We are a nation that has a government - not the other way around.” And at the end of a grim, grey decade - Vietnam, Watergate, energy crises, Iranian hostages – Americans decided they wanted a President who looked like the nation, not like its failed government. Thanks to his clarity, around the world, governments that had nations have been replaced by nations that have governments. Most of the Warsaw Pact countries are now members of Nato, with free markets and freely elected parliaments.One man who understood was Yakob Ravin, a Ukrainian émigré who in the summer of 1997 happened to be strolling with his grandson in Armand Hammer Park near Reagan’s California home. They happened to see the former President, out taking a walk. Mr Ravin went over and asked if he could take a picture of the boy and the President. When they got back home to Ohio, it appeared in the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade.
Ronald Reagan was three years into the decade-long twilight of his illness, and unable to recognize most of his colleagues from the Washington days. But Mr Ravin wanted to express his appreciation. “Mr President,” he said, “thank you for everything you did for the Jewish people, for Soviet people, to destroy the Communist empire.”
And somewhere deep within there was a flicker of recognition. “Yes,” said the old man, “that is my job.”
Yes, that was his job.
When the President retired he had an office in LA. He still went every day for quite some time even after the Alzheimer's had begun to destroy his mind. He obviously couldn't do a whole lot of work, but having been a fit man his whole life would go for walks with his Secret Service guys. A friend knew some folks who were in a softball league that played in a park near the office. One day Mr. Reagan came up to a few of them and asked if they'd mind if he watched their game for awhile. They stuttered that, no, he was welcome to watch. After observing them for awhile he came over and thanked them.
One would hardly expect a crowd of young folk in LA in the 90s to be Reaganauts, but they were astonished by how gracious he was, as if it were he whose privilege it was to meet them. That wasn't his job, just his nature as a true democrat.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 8, 2004 10:04 AMOne thing that divides Reagan from many of his latter day followers is that he knew America was indeed a nation, not an ideology.
Posted by: Paul Cella at June 8, 2004 10:50 AMI believe the word that best sums it up is: "class." Reagan had class.
Slightly off-topic, but relevant to the issue of class, as well as an illustration of Reagan's accomplishments; an anecdote from Morris' book Dutch: On his last day in office, literally two hours before the inauguration of George H. Bush, President Reagan was in the Oval Office for a photo shoot. In comes Colin Powell, and says it's time for the 10:00 AM briefing. President Reagan points out that he's about to leave office, but the general insists, so Reagan tells him to go ahead.
The briefing consisted of one sentence: "Mr. President, the world is quiet today."
Posted by: Mike Morley at June 8, 2004 11:58 AMPaul: He thought it was both.
Posted by: Chris at June 8, 2004 12:04 PMPaul:
You could not be more wrong:
" the struggle for freedom is not complete, for today much of the world is still cast in totalitarian darkness.
Twenty-two years ago President John F. Kennedy went to the Berlin Wall and proclaimed that he, too, was a Berliner. Well, today freedom-loving people around the world must say: I am a Berliner. I am a Jew in a world still threatened by anti-Semitism. I am an Afghan, and I am a prisoner of the Gulag. I am a refugee in a crowded boat foundering off the coast of Vietnam. I am a Laotian, a Cambodian, a Cuban, and a Miskito Indian in Nicaragua."
He passed history's biggest illegal immigrant amnesty too.
Posted by: oj at June 8, 2004 12:09 PMAlas. His biggest mistake, but he only signed the amnesty after insisting on enforcement meaures (which were later ignored). He also said: "This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position."
Reagan believed that all men ought to breathe free. He did not believe that all men were just Americans in costumes.
Posted by: Paul Cella at June 8, 2004 1:56 PMReagamn was too smart to think we'd enforce the law and too pro-liberty to close the border. Where do you think he thought those boat people were headed?
Posted by: oj at June 8, 2004 2:03 PMNo doubt to Cuba, which has a 100% literacy rate, and the world's finest health care system.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at June 8, 2004 2:56 PMPaul: I would argue that he believed -- and advocaed -- the idea that people must accept the American idea in order to be part of the American nation. In that sense, the nation follows from the idea.
Lord knows that was what I always took from him. Then again, I was twelve when he left office, so it's not beyond reason that a heady eight years of following national politics might have been insufficient preparation to understand the man.
Posted by: Chris at June 8, 2004 4:05 PMOne of the few things I am sure of is that a man is known by the company he keeps.
Reagan may have been gracious to softball players, but he palled around with some of the worst degenerates of his generation.
Maybe it was an act.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 8, 2004 10:29 PMHarry: Presumably you're not including the company we keep on the Internet.
Posted by: David Cohen at June 12, 2004 9:49 AM