Ronald Reagan

Without a doubt, Ronald Reagan is one of the most idolized presidents in history, particularly among conservatives. It seems that every republican that comes into prominence wants to emulate and be compared to "the Gipper". Most of my conservative colleagues hold him in incredibly high esteem. They see him as an iconic example of American exceptionalism and strength. I, however, would have to disagree and say that he wasn't as amazing as so many people make him out to be. It's not that I think Ronald Reagan was necessarily a bad president, I just think that he is incredibly overrated. Don't get me wrong, he was a fantastic public speaker, and I admire the elements of patriotism and optimism that were so prevalent in his rhetoric, but I would say that it can be debated that he did more harm than good. First of all, of course, many conservatives tout that he "single handedly brought down the Soviet Union", but from what I know, he, at best, hastened the inevitable. The Soviet Union had been teetering on the verge of collapse for a while, and I don't think that it would be accurate to say that the military spending race that Reagan started with the Russians really did anything but give that tiny final tap that pushed them over the edge. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm no communist, and I don't support communism in any way. I admire Reagans fierce anti-communist rhetoric, and I think he really did see the Soviet Union for what it was, an "evil empire". Still, from what I've researched, the Soviet Union simply collapsed in on itself because of the inherent fatal flaws of the system that Reagan really didn't have much to do with. He was essentially an over glorified cheerleader for capitalism. Then you have his horrendous inaction when the nation was faced with the tragedy known as the aids epidemic. Americans were dying left and right, and his inaction was inexcusable if you ask me. On top of that, there was the war on drugs, which while it was well intentioned, was ultimately a failure in my opinion and all that it really did was overcrowd prisons with nonviolent offenders that should have been treated as having health issues instead of as criminals. Again, I know the war on drugs was well intentioned, but I think it was ultimately ineffective and had some pretty prominent drawbacks. Of course I can't talk about Reagan without mentioning the one event that I haven't gone over, which you can probably guess what it is. That event is the Iran Contra affair. In my eyes, this was Reagans most significant slip up. I'm still not sure how much he actually knew about what was going on, and it should be said that I know he was a fairly hands off president so there's a good chance that he really was largely in the dark concerning the matter, but in my opinion that makes it worse. Selling arms to Iran in order to fund the Contras in Nicaragua is so unsettling on so many levels. First of all, all of the parties involved (minus the United States) were extremist groups or regimes. The fact of the matter is that Reagan, whether he fully knew it or not, supplied an enemy of the united states with weapons in order to fund an extremist group in Latin America. Of course there is so much more to the Iran-Contra scandal, more than I could really fit into just one blog entry. But I summed it up the best that I could in my own understanding. It should be said that I don't think any other person could have handled the situation any better. It was ultimately a move that wasn't supposed to be exposed, but the fact that it was cast the United States in a very negative and shady light. Obviously I didn't live through the Reagan administration so there is only so much I can say about it from what I have looked into, but the fact of the matter that all I know about it is from second hand sources, so I might be completely mistaken in all of these claims that I've made in this entry. Despite all his flaws and mistakes, I'm well aware that Reagan was a wildly popular president during his time. I think that was due to a couple things. First off, he was incredibly charismatic, charming, and funny. Even if you aren't a fan of him, you can't deny that. Secondly, from the speeches of his that I've seen, he really made his audiences feel proud to be American. He had a unique ability to really stir up patriotism and optimism, and I think it was that that was what made him so popular. Unfortunately, his flashy speeches, optimism, and patriotism, in my opinion, were simply a means of charming the American public into overlooking the significant flaws and mistakes of the administration, and it worked spectacularly. Again, I could be entirely mistaken in all the claims I've made here. Reagan could have been the best president that we've ever had, and I'm simply allowing my own political leanings to blind me to that, but I have a very strong feeling that this isn't the case.