Demosophia

Ron: A Legacy

I never voted for Ronald Reagan in my life. In fact, I've never voted Republican in any Presidential race, so far. The only time I've ever voted Republican in my life was for Mark Hatfield, whom I admired even though he was dead wrong about Vietnam and never gained the courage to come out of the closet. It's tough to be an anti-war/Mennonite gay Republican. The career was noteworthy. What can I say?

But I'm also one who may never again vote Democrat, for any office, because of the influence the anti-war crowd has had an my party. It has been corrosive. I thought the reforms of the Reaganites were awful, except that they transformed an ailing economy into a healthy one. And I opposed all of his Cold War measures, yet I recognize that he was right and I was wrong. So it's with bittersweet irony that I bid this warrior adieu.

There have been a half dozen great presidents in US history and he was undoubtedly one. That's a pretty damn good legacy. I'd consider Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln (probably our greatest), the two Roosevelts, and Kennedy along with Reagan, in that club. Well, that's seven. But I'm not that sure about Kennedy any longer. He presided over the first stirrings of the Civil Rights movement, and ultimately went the right way... but many of his other instincts were wrong. And there were two tragic figures in the office as well: LBJ and Nixon, who were "great," but maybe in a different sense. So I guess it depends on what you believe "great" means.

But because of the fact that he presided over the end of the Cold War, and correctly "called the Home Run," no matter how you parse the list Reagan has to be on it. Sorry, fellow Ds, but that's a fact. And he deserves to have an airport named for him too.

And his emblematic position as a poster child for Alzheimers is no small contribution to his legacy either, because it raises that tragic disease to it's full stature in public perception. He was born before my father, and outlasted him by 11 years. Even my uncle Reg, who died this year and to whom a chapter of Ernie Pyle's Brave Men was devoted, didn't last as long as Ron. And let me also mention my Uncle Marty, who was wrong about a lot... but whose service was a legacy that can't be diminished. And to my uncle Marion, who died in the skies over Germany as a young man, leaving a son and wife who like the family of Sullivan Ballou got lost. And to all the other countless men who would have been undeniably better than me had they not had the grace to make me part of their immortal legacy: That generation, to whom I must humbly say, "I'm sorry" is almost gone now. You weren't perfect, but you were very very good. I miss you. You changed America and, thereby, changed the world. If I'm still sentient at 93 perhaps I'll have a legacy to point to. If so, it'll partly be because of your example.

Posted by Demosophist at June 5, 2004 08:31 PM | TrackBack