"It has nothing more to say, nothing to add to the debate. It has spent its intellectual capital, such as it was -- and it has done its deeds."
-- President Reagan on liberalism
Conservative Political Action Conference
March 1, 1985
-- President Reagan on liberalism
Conservative Political Action Conference
March 1, 1985
With every passing minute of every passing day, the truth Ronald Reagan long ago understood is once more emerging from the political fog.
"Somewhere a perversion has taken place," Reagan said in discussing his former political faith as a Democrat and a "near hopeless hemophilic liberal." The party of Jefferson and Jackson had headed down a different road altogether "under the banners of Marx, Lenin and Stalin." Or, as he was also unafraid to say and in words that resonate vividly today in the Obama era, the objective of the modern liberal was "to impose socialism" on the American people.
Reagan would have none of it.
He had spent decades carefully studying what was happening, leading the Hollywood branch of the fight as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. As he made the change from actor and union leader to governor of California and president, Reagan minced no words, which is precisely why Americans would come to revere him. He was not afraid to speak the truth -- and that truth applies even more today than when he was sharply critical of the Democrats of his own day.
In the midst of what can only be described as a laughable attempt by Obama aides and the President's left-wing media allies to wrap Obama in the Reagan mantle -- a photo-shopped Time magazine cover has the two paired like grinning escapees from a presidential buddy movie -- the nation prepares to celebrate Reagan's centennial birthday. More to the point, the reminder of exactly why Reagan's presidency was such a stunning success, and Obama's thus far a stunning failure, can easily be found by pairing Reagan's wisdom with Obama's results.
Ronald Reagan understood to his core what Barack Obama has not only never accepted but rejects out of hand based on both his actions as a private citizen and president: that socialism is now and has always been a failed philosophy. Obama, as well documented from his days at Occidental College to today -- is a now (if belatedly) well-documented socialist true believer.
To believe that the Obama presidency will end in other than utter failure because he thinks he speaks Reaganite at a State of the Union speech is to believe that a man who has spent an adult lifetime disbelieving in gravity will survive a leap from the Empire State Building because he's suddenly muttering incantations from Newton on the way down.
Amidst all the sudden veneration for Reagan from today's left as a man of moderation (in contrast, but of course, to the wicked conservatives of today) those with longer memories recall vividly that liberals of the day hated Ronald Reagan's guts. This jewel of a statement from his arch-adversary House Speaker Tip O'Neill is but an understated example, as Reagan biographer Steven Hayward has noted:
"The evil is in the White House at the present time. And that evil is a man who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and the future generations of America, and who likes to ride a horse. He's cold. He's mean. He's got ice water for blood."
In fact, as Time magazine notes well, while Tip O'Neill was fuming about Reagan and others compared him to Hitler, Columbia student Barack Obama was so angered he decided to personally devote himself to the task of changing the White House. Reports Time of Obama's sentiments toward Reagan:
"I personally came of age during the Reagan presidency," Obama wrote later, recalling the classroom debates in his courses on international affairs. When he graduated from Columbia in 1983, Obama decided to become a community organizer. "I'd pronounce the need for change," Obama wrote in his memoir. "Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds." A decade later, he was still at it, leading a 1992 Illinois voter-registration effort aimed at breaking the Reagan coalition's hold on his state's electoral votes.
Right, right, right.
But why did Ronald Reagan summon such utter hatred and contempt as exhibited in the 1980s from House Speaker O'Neill and Columbia graduate Obama? Amid the current cries for civility it should be noted that Reagan's career brought forth a particularly vehement vitriol from the left on a regular basis. Whether it was the liberal fellow actor who spat in Reagan's face in a chance street encounter in late 1940's Hollywood (hissing "Fascist!") or the anonymous voice on a phone threatening to throw acid in his face (as was actually done to labor columnist Victor Riesel, like Reagan prominent for his anti-communist views. Riesel was disfigured for life, losing his eyesight), Ronald Reagan's habit of plainly speaking truths obvious to increasing millions infuriated leftists while worrying his friends. The latter acid-throwing threat against then-actor Reagan had his alarmed movie studio boss Jack Warner summoning the police, who insisted on issuing Reagan both a gun permit and a loaded .32 Smith and Wesson.
From threats of violence to the type of sentiment like the one expressed by O'Neill -- the sitting Speaker of the House when he made the remark -- Reagan decades later was still targeted for a special hatred reserved both for himself and his fellow conservatives. With liberals simply not caring in the least. Imagine the reaction today if House Speaker John Boehner referred to President Obama as the "evil… in the White House." And how long would it take before the drumbeat would begin for Boehner's resignation?
