The Real Reagan Legacy
The volcanic outpouring of respect for the late President Ronald Reagan should extend far beyond the mere week of festivities, tributes from around the world and the proposal to put his likeness on the ten dollar bill.
He had a special respect for and understanding of our precious natural resources.
When Reagan was governor of California, he made public statements against conservation, including, “You’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all,” and actually stated on record that trees created pollution.
He loved actors and respected the craft of acting.
As president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was subpoenaed by a grand jury for giving MCA, his own talent agency, as well as a studio, a sole, blanket waiver on hiring their own clients. In Dan Moldea’s book Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob (Viking), we learn federal prosecutors were so convinced Reagan was perjuring himself that they requested all of his and wife Nancy’s income tax returns from 1952-55. MCA quickly shut its talent agency and the case was closed and sealed.
He had, as the Great Communicator, an amazing ability to bring together disparate elements of the public with his folksy rhetoric.
As governor, Reagan brought in the National Guard to occupy UC Berkeley for 17 days, after a small parking lot was taken over and dubbed “People’s Park.” Reagan’s strong-arm tactics resulted in numerous injuries, one death, and he smoothly issued, at one point, the diplomatic offer, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over. No more appeasement.”
He was, in the great tradition of Republicanism, fiscally conservative.
Reagan advocated the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a satellite defense system to protect the U.S. from an incoming missile attack. It was dubbed Star Wars, and was about as realistic. It never became operational and cost the country one trillion dollars. Scientists today still insist it is not feasible, even though George W. Bush is spending more money on it.
He had a warmth and humanity that transcended politics and power.
Reagan was a friendly witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which destroyed the lives and careers of scores of people in the Hollywood creative community, assuming their right to freedom of political expression would lead to a Communist overthrow of the government. And as governor, Reagan decimated the mental health care system in California, forcing mentally disturbed patients to be forced out of newly-closed facilities and turned out into the streets.
Reagan upheld values we Americans hold dearest: freedom, justice, respect for the law and a standard of ethics high above that of the rest of the world.
Reagan broke international law as well as U.S. law. He ignored the Boland Amendment and the Arms Export Control Act and allowed the illegal sale of weapons to Iran to facilitate funding the contras in Nicaragua, attempting to overthrow the democratically elected, Marxist regime of Daniel Ortega. His administration knowingly allowed the use of death squads in El Salvador during its civil war. Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News linked the contras to the importation of crack cocaine in California, which spread across America. Nicaragua: 50,000 dead. El Salvador: 75,000 dead.
If you put his face on the ten dollar bill, I will ask for two fives instead.
(Originally published in Entertainment Today)
